


Fire In The Light

by Noducksinpond



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Recreational Drug Use, Season 8 Fix It, Your healthy mix of angst and fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-05-30 11:53:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15096167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: "“It’s like a car crash, Jackie. Just can’t look away,” he fired back, but it sounded a lot less mean, than he’d planned on. Regardless, she still tried to shove him, but there was no real force behind that either."[Or as the eighties draw to a close, it turns out there's some truth to the saying that history repeats itself.]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I only recently watched the entire show through, and absolutely loved it! With one exception.. So, I wanted to try and remedy that, without completely throwing season 8 in the garbage, so that is what this is.

Part 1: We return to Point Place, Wisconsin for an unofficial 10 year high school reunion - which is actually a year late

Point Place, Wisconsin

August 8th, 1989, 5:02 PM

Point Place Price Mart

It was never his plan to go to his 10-year high school reunion. Hyde had gotten the invite, obviously, ridiculous looking and all, and thrown it in the trash immediately. He'd even considered using the garbage disposal in WB's kitchen to get rid of it, just to make a point. Even when taking into account, that he was against it on principle, ridiculous streamers, punch and reminiscing about all the good old times with people he hated and teachers he hated even more, none of his friends were coming. So, there wasn’t even anyone who could reluctantly drag him to that.

Forman and Donna were in Japan, travelling around for a couple of months. Brooke was about to give birth to her and Kelso’s second child, god help her, so Kelso wasn’t leaving Chicago, in case he needed to drive Brooke to the hospital. Fez’s salon in San Francisco couldn’t close for the entire weekend, and the guy he owned the place with, was on vacation, so Fez was also out, and Jackie- Well, Jackie was thankfully a year younger than them, and even if she hadn’t been, she probably wouldn’t have tried to drag him to it anyway. She would have, once upon a time, but not anymore.

It was Forman’s idea, that they do their own kind of reunion a year later. They could go the water tower, just him, Forman, Fez, Donna and Kelso, drink some beer, watch Kelso jump off if he was in the mood for it. To Hyde, it sounded a lot better than an actual high school reunion, so he was down for it, and all of them had been able to make it to Point Place that Saturday. Hyde made his way between the freezers, picking up the frozen potatoes, he needed for dinner, when he turned towards the milk cabinet, seeing probably the last person, he had expected to see in a Point Place grocery store, besides Robert Plant or something.

Jackie was standing with a carton of milk in her hand, looking at him without saying anything. Not only could Jackie not cook, she probably wouldn’t have been caught dead in a grocery store either. He hadn’t seen her in three years, not since Donna and Forman got married. Back then she’d been engaged to some douchey looking guy. Not that he’d actually asked, or even talked to her for that matter that day. But Fez had asked Donna, and he’d happened to overhear it. That was all. Jackie’s hair was curlier, it looked like her hair would bounce when she walked. She was wearing a large camel coat, that dwarfed her. Probably the douche’s coat or some shit. He opened his mouth to say something, probably to ask her, what had gotten into her, since she’d stooped down to going to a grocery store. He hadn’t decided what to burn her with yet. “Hyde,” she said as a way of a greeting, flatly.

It shouldn’t have thrown him off so much, that she called him that. Everyone always called him that, except Mr and Mrs Forman, and WB. It wasn’t a big fucking deal. Hell, Jackie had even called him that, before she got it into her head, that she was in love with him, after she broke up with Kelso. But she hadn’t called him that since then. It had always been _Steven_ in that loud, shrill voice. He didn’t know what it was, but whatever burn, he had been planning for, died before he could say anything. “Jackie,” he said instead, lamely.

Neither of them moved an inch. He looked at Jackie, and Jackie looked at him, and it was like they were having a competition to see who’d look away first. It felt like some hell version of those romantic movies, chicks always tried to get him to watch, where the two lovers just stare at each other, while the music swelled, right before they threw themselves at each other, like a bunch of idiots. Except there was no music, they weren’t exactly lovers, and the likelihood of Jackie throwing herself at him was slim to say the least. Not that he wanted her to anyway.

“Whatever,” he said with a small scoff, finally breaking the silence between them. He walked past her, opened the fridge, that stored the milk and closed it again. Jackie didn’t say anything else. She didn’t follow him either, when he walked towards the checkout, or talk to him on the parking lot, before he got into his car. Hyde didn’t exactly want her to say shit anyway, they didn’t exactly hate each other or anything, they just weren’t friends either. Not anymore.

A small pathetic part of him, that he mostly managed to ignore, kind of missed talking to her. They hadn’t been good at a lot of the big stuff, fought about the future or whatever, a lot of the time. But they were good at having fun together, and talking about the small stuff. They hadn’t really worked out how to do that after, after all the shit that had happened in Chicago. Then she and Fez had moved to California, and he didn’t see her every day anymore, and it was easier just to avoid her, when he did. Whatever, it wasn’t like any of that mattered anymore.

* * *

 

Point Place, Wisconsin

August 9th, 1989, 9:06 PM

Point Place High School Gym

If you were to ask Jackie ten years ago, if she was looking forward to her high school reunion, the answer would have undoubtedly been yes. She’d known from her freshman year, that she was aiming to be head cheerleader before she graduated. That plan had largely been torpedoed, due to her spending more and more time in Eric Forman’s basement, but she’d still cared what people thought about her, until about the start of her senior year. If nothing else, her high school reunion was an opportunity to see who had gotten fat, and to hold her undoubtedly superior life over the head of the girls, she’d hated in high school. At least, that was what she had imagined, when she had been in high school.

Jackie took another swig of her class of punch. It wasn’t laced with alcohol, but it was better than talking for the time being. Sure, it didn’t hurt that Julie’s boyfriend hadn’t proposed, or that Stacy hadn’t been able to stay in shape, but in reality, Jackie couldn’t bring herself to care too much. Jackie didn’t have a rich husband like she’d expected to have or even a boyfriend, she lived in a relatively small apartment, and she didn’t have any kids. She didn’t have any of the things, she had expected to be able to taunt her former friends with, and she wasn’t bothered by it.

She had an amazing job at the TV station in LA, that she loved doing. She had good friends in Los Angeles, and she had managed to stay in touch with both Donna and Eric, Fez and Michael. And Hyde to a much lesser degree. It was always weird being around Hyde now. But that wasn’t the point, the point was, that she was doing so much better, than she had, when she’d been engaged to John. She had briefly considered roping one of her colleagues from the station, Lucas, into being her boyfriend for tonight, but at the end of the day decided against it. It wasn’t like, it really mattered what the girls on the cheer squad thought of her, not anymore. She had talked to several B-list celebrities on the set, Julie could suck it. “So, Jackie I hear you work on TV?” It was Courtney, another one of the cheerleaders.

“Well, behind the camera actually, I’m a chase producer on a morning show in Los Angeles,” Jackie replied. She could tell from Courtney’s confused look, that she didn’t get it. “I make sure we get guests to make appearances and such,” she said. Courtney seemed to get it, but there was an expecting look on her face as well. Jackie could guess why. “So, what about you?”

“I got married last summer as you know,” Courtney said with what could only be described as a proud smile. Jackie did remember that. “And Stewart makes more than enough money for both of us, so thankfully I could quit my secretary job. You should have seen the look on Julie’s face though, she looked like she wanted to beat me to death with the bouquet. It was a shame, you couldn’t go to Colorado that weekend.”

“Yeah, a real shame,” Jackie said with a hopefully convincing fake smile. She hadn’t actually had any plans that weekend, but she’d feigned having to work to get out of going. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy going to weddings exactly, she had happily gone to Eric and Donna’s wedding, even though she still mostly didn’t get why the hell Donna wanted to marry Eric. She’d say yes to going to Michael and Brooke’s wedding in a heartbeat, if Michael ever actually worked up the courage to ask Brooke. Hell, she already had a weekend blocked out for going to San Francisco for Fez’ wedding next year. It was really just an extension of the realization she’d had at the Christmas Eve dance, she’d dragged Hyde to, these girls weren’t her friends anymore.

“So, Jackie is there a special man in your life?” Courtney asked. It was the same question, both Julie and Stacy had arrived at, once they were done talking about themselves.

“Nope,” Jackie replied. She’d gone on dates, obviously, since she called off her engagement. But nothing had amounted to anything serious. Work kept her busy enough, as it was, so she didn’t miss it too much, even if she had always enjoyed having a boyfriend. “I’m a working woman.”

“That’s such a shame,” Courtney said with faux sympathy. Jackie wasn’t an idiot, she knew why she asked. It was the same reason the other girls had asked. Courtney was trying to taunt her, with how much better, she was doing than Jackie. “I’m sure, you’ll find someone special,” Courtney continued before moving on to the next person, she wanted to talk to.

Jackie took another swig of her punch. Not knowing whether or not, there would be alcohol served, she had talked Donna into coming to pick her up at 9:30, which was thankfully pretty soon. Donna had refused to pick her up later at night, and Jackie hadn’t been sure, she would want to stick around longer, so it had all worked out. She wondered briefly, if she should ask Donna, what Hyde had been doing in Point Place yesterday. Normally, Jackie would have refused to set her feet in a Price Mart, but they were out of milk and various groceries, her mom was in Portugal, and her mom didn’t have enough money at the moment to hire a maid to go fetch it for them.

As far as she knew, Hyde lived in Kenosha and was rarely ever in Point Place, except to have dinner with the Formans, along with Eric and Donna. At least, that was what Donna had told her. Not that Jackie had actually asked, it had just come up in conversation was all. Donna and Eric would have moved too, but they spent a lot of their time travelling, and the house they had gotten in Point Place was a lot cheaper, than anything they could get in Madison. Jackie refilled her cup with more punch, and shook the thought from her head. It wasn’t like she really cared, what Hyde did or didn’t do. They barely talked, as it was. Besides, Donna had invited her along to an unofficial high school reunion, that Eric had come up with, tomorrow night at the water tower. If she wanted to ask, which she didn’t, she could always ask him then.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: the first part of this chapter does mention the fact that Charlie died in 8x01. If you're sensitive to that for whatever reason, just skip ahead to '“Well, we can talk about what we’ve done for the last year'
> 
> And we're back, and a bit sooner than planned too. I was actually going to update every other Friday, to give myself some space both to work on this, and the exam I have to resit for my BA. But seeing as I won't be able to post tomorrow, or next Friday, and this was technically ready to post, I figured sooner was better than later.

Point Place, Wisconsin

August 10th, 1989, 9:30 PM

The Point Place Water Tower

“You know, this really seems like the kind of thing, we should have gotten over by now,” Donna said, when they’d all reached the top of the water tower. Jackie nodded in agreement. Hyde passed around the beer cans, and Jackie took one. She might have preferred the kind of drinks, that guys liked to complain about being too manly to order, but she didn’t mind drinking beer either.

“Well, if grown adults can go and drink punch in their high school gym for a night, we can sit at the water tower and drink beer,” Eric argued, which Jackie had to admit, was a decent counterpoint. Her high school reunion last night had really cemented that point. The cheerleaders weren’t her friends anymore. The group currently sitting at the water tower, were the people that were her friends. These guys, as much as she told herself, they were idiots, had been the people, she had looked forward to seeing.

All of them paused for a moment, Hyde next to her. He’d been the one to climb the ladder to the tower just before her. She hadn’t been up here, in so long. It felt weird to be back here. She had thought her life was going to be so different, when she’d graduated high school. Be a TV star, have a husband, probably have kids, and definitely have a nice house. Instead, she was a producer on a morning show, had a small apartment in LA, the closest she had gotten to getting married, was John who she’d run out on, and the only close family she had currently on the continent, was in prison for bribery and embezzlement. She adored her job, much more than her stint as a host, she had good friends, and she didn’t feel the need for a boyfriend. It was just different, than she had expected it to be. “I don’t think, we’ve all been together since New Year’s two years ago.”

“God, I think you’re actually right,” Eric said, and took another sip of beer. Michael and Brooke usually threw a New Year’s Eve party. Other than that, they mostly got together for birthdays, and a Christmas party at the Formans. But it wasn’t always, that everyone could make it to those things, so Jackie could see what they meant. Eric and Donna had been out of the country last year, when Brooke had given birth. Jackie had been stuck working on a Christmas Day show in Los Angeles, that was being broadcast live last Christmas. “Fez couldn’t even get off work for The Super Bowl. We had to watch the _49’ers_ win, without him there to rub in our faces.”

“A business doesn’t run itself, Eric,” Fez retorted, but there was also a smug smile on his face. Fez still didn’t know all that much about football, as far as Jackie knew, with the exception of the fact that the _49’ers_ were from San Francisco. “But we do, do everything better in San Francisco. When was the last time, the _Packers_ won the Super Bowl?”

“Fez, don’t let my dad hear you say that, or you might end up dead and dumped into a dumpster,” Eric said. “In fact, I think it’s a solid 99% risk. He just needs to find a dumpster.”

“Well, now that we’re all together, we should toast to Charlie, right?” Kelso said. Everyone else leaning against the water tower nodded. Jackie briefly remembered Charlie. The boys had hung out with him, around the time, she’d been about to go to Chicago. The next thing, she knew, Charlie had fallen off the water tower, and unlike the rest of the boys, he hadn’t gotten up again. It was weird, considering how Michael claimed, he had fallen off the water tower every year through school, and the worst that happened to him was a broken arm. Maybe Michael’s skull was just a lot thicker.

“To Charlie,” Fez said, raising his beer. Everyone else echoed him. There was a moment of a silence, where nobody said anything. “I still can’t believe that magnificent bastard, actually died falling off the water tower.”

“Fez, isn’t that a little grim to talk about?” Michael asked. “I mean, the guy died here, man.”

“Well, we can talk about what we’ve done for the last year and a half,” Jackie said. It was lame, Jackie even kind of thought so. But a part of her was genuinely curious about it. Also, she really wanted to change the subject away from Charlie, considering the fact that they were currently standing on the water tower. Sure, Donna had filled her in, on how she and Eric were doing. But she hadn’t seen either Fez nor Michael for a good while, and she genuinely had no idea what Hyde was doing these days, besides the going to dinner at the Formans thing. Both Eric and Fez made a face at her suggestion.

“No no, I think it’s kind of cool,” Donna interjected. She paused for a moment and looked down at her own feet for a beat. Jackie wondered what she was thinking. She might have to ask her at some point. Jackie took a sip of her beer. “I mean- we don’t see each other a whole lot anymore and a lot of things can happen, so what the hell?”

“I can go first, if no one else wants to,” Jackie suggested, looking around at her friends.

“Of course, you’d say that,” Hyde retorted under his breath, and Jackie glared at him. Had this been 7 or 8 years ago and anywhere else, she might have hit his arm, but she didn’t actually want him to fall down the water tower, and she also didn’t care enough anymore.

“Maybe, I just take pride in what I do, Hyde,” she retorted. Hyde didn’t say anything else, and nobody protested. “I work as a producer on a morning show that films in LA, I was a host for a while, but honestly hosts are just kind of talking heads. If you’re on screen, you’re on screen, but producers get to decide more. And um- I was engaged for a while to a lawyer named John, and he was going to inherit a really nice house from his parents.”

“Dreamboat,” Eric shot in, and Jackie considered if she could punch him. John had been a perfectly nice guy for the most part, he was good looking, his job as a lawyer and the future house, which had been his parents’ vacation house was just a bonus. None of that had been the problem, she just happened to realize her heart wasn’t in it. But it wasn’t like any of them was going to get that, anyhow.

“Anyway, I called the wedding off,” Jackie said, and avoided whatever looks the rest of them were sending her. “Just realized, it wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Well, that is a first, Goddess,” Fez said. Jackie didn’t reply, there wasn’t really a point. Donna made a face at Fez, which was fair enough. But it was just a joke, Fez had called her goddess as a joke, since both of them got over their breakup. Jackie didn’t really mind. “But unlike you, I’m getting married to my very gorgeous fiancée Kelly next spring, and it’s going to be magical, my friends. And I still have the salon of course. That was where I met her.”

“’This another Danielle situation, where you’re just that great at shampooing a chick’s hair?” Hyde asked. Jackie glared at him. Kelly was nice, dumb as hell, but she was nice. Jackie had been in San Francisco a couple of months ago, and had dinner with the two of them. She wasn’t sure, whether Hyde took the hint or not.

“Hey, I wish I could pull that trick off,” Michael interjected defensively. He shuffled his hands a little awkwardly. “Anyway, as you guys know it’s Will’s birthday in a couple of weeks. And Betsy is about to start middle school, she’s one of the best kids in her class. And I’m gonna ask Brooke to marry me.”

“Kelso, you said you were going to propose to Brooke two years ago,” Donna pointed out, and Jackie nodded. It was no secret, that Michael couldn’t figure out how to propose to Brooke. No matter what brilliant plan he’d laid, at least by Michael’s standards, he always ended up backing off at the last minute.

“She’s got a point, man. I think I need to see it to believe it,” Eric agreed. Michael made a face at both of them. He’d announced it at least 5 times, that he was going to propose to Brooke, but every single time, he backed out, because of some small detail or another. Fez nodded in agreement.

“Kelso, you two have been together for nine years. You got two kids. Sure, the first one was an accident, but the second one wasn’t,” Hyde said, pretty much laying out exactly the reasons why, Jackie thought Michael was being ridiculous. “I think, she stopped giving a shit a while ago, if you have never read a book without pictures, or whether her mom hates your guts.”

“Well, I am going to propose to her this time, man,” Michael fired back.

“Need to see it to believe it, man,” Eric said with an amused smile. “But I guess, I can go next. Donna and I just got home from Mexico, surprisingly no sight of Jackie’s mom.” Jackie couldn’t even find it in herself to be mad at him for that, but she did glare at him for good measure. “And we travel a lot, and I pick up hours at the school, when we’re home to afford going places.”

“And I write for the _Wisconsin State Journal_ and _Isthmus_ whenever we’re home,” Donna continued. “As cool, as the radio was, I get to say a lot more important stuff this way.”

“And I’m not telling you shit,” Hyde interjected. Jackie rolled her eyes, of course he would say that.

“Come on!” Fez protested. “I must know, if the stripper is coming to my wedding.”

“Moron, you know Sam divorced both me and Larry, when she met that other guy,” Hyde fired back. She’d known Hyde wasn’t dating the stripper anyway, she hadn’t had any uncomfortable confrontations with her at Eric and Donna’s wedding after all, but she’d figured he was still stuck being illegally married to her. Hyde sighed heavily, clearly realizing that Fez had baited him into saying more than he meant to. “Fine. WB made me ‘regional manager’ a couple of years ago. Basically, means I get to drive around to the different stores, listen to music, and make sure they carry Zeppelin. But mostly, I just run the store in Kenosha.”

“Look, Hyde has moved up the corporate ladder to middle management,” Eric interjected, making all of them snort with laughter. If looks could kill, Eric would be dead, after the look Hyde gave him.

“Can it, Forman,” Hyde bit back. “I still don’t work very hard.”

* * *

 

It might have been August, but after a couple of hours on top of the water tower, it was getting pretty cold. This was Wisconsin after all, not Los Angeles. Jackie shivered through her jacket, and hugged it a little tighter around her. She glanced down on her watch, it was getting pretty late too. Jackie took another sip of her fourth beer that night. Sure, her mom wouldn’t exactly be up waiting, but they should still get back home, fairly soon. Donna was leaning heavily on Eric, her head resting on his shoulder. Fez seemed really fascinated by the text on the can, holding it up to his face and staring on it. Jackie shuffled a bit from foot to foot.

“Well, I think we should get back down,” Jackie said, as she made one step towards the stairs. It only took a moment for her to realize, she’d made a mistake, and that four beers were at least one too many, when her foot slipped and her stomach fell. She knew all the guys had fallen off this thing, and she really hadn’t planned to be next. Jackie only managed to let out a scream, that sounded more like a squeak, when someone grabbed her arm, and kept her steady, pulling her back up onto the platform. Her heart was beating at a thousand miles per hour in her chest, and Jackie took a deep breath.

“Careful, Jacks, can’t have you fall down,” Hyde said, because of course Hyde was the one, who had caught her. Jackie made a face at him, which was met with a blank expression. Indifference obviously, they weren’t really speaking anymore. “You’ll fall too hard.”

“Yeah, Jackie you’re almost thirty. That’s like old, old,” Michael chimed in, making her roll her eyes. Jackie was about to snap a _shut up, Michael_ or something to that effect, when Eric of all people, came to her rescue. Granted, he’d stopped calling her the devil to her face years ago, but it was still kind of caught Jackie off guard.

“Kelso, aren’t you two years older than her?” Eric asked. Everyone else seemed to have turned their attention to whatever argument, she and Michael were sort of having. Which, considering the fact, that they’d once had a pool on, when they were going to start fighting and break up, shouldn’t be that surprising to Jackie. It was still annoying though.

“He’s right, you should be careful, Michael. You might start balding soon,” Jackie bit back, making Michael let out an insulted shriek, Donna laughed, and if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, Hyde almost smiled out of the corner of her eye. Not that she particularly cared what Hyde did. Donna padded Michael on the shoulder with faux sympathy, as Fez started to climb down the ladder to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is now also up on my ff.net account, which I haven't used in ages [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13003252/1/Fire-In-The-Light) should you wanna read it there. Hopefully, you guys enjoy this chapter. We're getting into the fun stuff now.

Point Place, Wisconsin

August 11th, 1989, 0:31 AM

Donna and Eric’s Driveway

They arrived at Forman and Donna’s house, Kelso and Fez stumbling out of the car, clearly having to hang onto each other. Jackie hugged her jacket tighter around her. Donna paused in front of one of the planters in their front garden, like she was considering something, before slamming both hands in front of her mouth, and making a bee line for the house, leaving the door open behind her. Forman just shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot, like he wasn’t sure about what exactly was happening. Donna was probably going to throw up, and be pissed at Forman for having to take care of it by herself, tomorrow. Forman was even sober for crying out loud. Jackie looked between Forman and the door, and rolled her eyes, almost like she was thinking the same thing, he was. “Eric, she’s going to puke! Go help her!”

“Oh dear god, you’re right,” Eric said, clearly realizing that Jackie was probably right, while storming for the door. He almost knocked over Fez and Kelso on the way, which he had to admit, was kind of funny. Jackie had her hands in her jacket pockets, looking down at the floor. He’d only caught her out by the water tower, because she would have whined and complained too much, if she’d fallen down. Not that he needed to justify it, or anything. Hyde turned his attention to Kelso and Fez, waiting to see, just when they’d actually fall over. Jackie was probably just waiting for Eric to come back and drive her home.

Fez tried to sit down, but Kelso, the moron, apparently hadn’t realized it, so he fell over his own feet, and landed next to Fez on the front porch, basically falling flat on his face. He laughed, which he didn’t feel bad about at all, or at least only a tiny bit. “Ow, my eye!” Kelso exclaimed.

“I should get home,” Jackie said, mostly to herself. She was smiling, like she was trying not to laugh at Kelso. Jackie hooked up in her bag. She looked between Kelso, Fez and the house. “Guess, I’ll have to walk myself home.”

“I can walk you home, if you want,” he heard himself say, before he knew what was happening. Jackie gave him a confused look. Fair enough, he was just trying to be nice to her. It was pretty late, and for Point Place it was pretty far. She shouldn’t have to walk that far home by herself, despite technically being his annoying pushy ex-girlfriend. “Or not. You know, whatever.”

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” Jackie replied. She crossed her arms, and uncrossed them again. “You should stay here, and make sure these morons don’t throw up on each other, or something.”

“Jackie, you can’t walk that far by yourself,” Hyde argued. Maybe, it was about being right, more than anything else, instead of just letting her walk home by herself. Jackie still didn’t look convinced. Besides, he knew Fez and Kelso weren’t that drunk. “Look, those two will be fine. Forman can take care of them, once he’s done holding Donna’s hair, or whatever.”

“Hyde, I didn’t say that, just so you’d offer to walk me home, if that’s what you think,” Jackie said. He rolled his eyes. Hyde wasn’t offering, just because she’d guilted him into doing it, or whatever. He didn’t know why exactly, but that definitely wasn’t the reason. He’d actually prefer to stop thinking about it.

“Just let me walk you home. I’ll feel bad, if you get mugged,” Hyde retorted. Her shoulders fell, and she shrugged. He started walking in the direction of her house, and Jackie hurried to walk next to him. He wasn’t going to wait around for her. He wasn’t that considerate. It didn’t look like Jackie really minded. Neither of them said anything, but naturally, it wasn’t like it used to be. Silences between them used to be comfortable, but now it felt much more tense.

Normally, if you ran into someone, you hadn’t seen in a while, you could at least talk about, what had happened since you saw them last. Not, that he would have. He’d probably just have avoided them, or burned them and hope they’d go away again. But most of the shit, that could be considered polite conversation or whatever, had already been said at the water tower. “So, Sam really divorced both you and Larry?” Jackie asked without looking at him. She had clearly run out of stuff to say too.

“Yeah, she must really like the new guy, if she was willing to give up Larry’s cash,” Hyde said. He didn’t look at her either. He had no idea why, Jackie had asked, and he wasn’t really sure, he wanted to know either. It wasn’t like he really gave a shit about Sam anymore at the very least, the last time, he’d seen her, was when she’d showed up with the divorce papers, and that was a year after they were through for good. Even though their marriage had never been legitimate, he apparently still had to sign the papers. “Gotta say the whole marriage thing, wasn’t all you cracked it up to be,” he said, knowing that was unfair to her, but not stopping himself either.

“Well, of course you’d say that,” Jackie said. But she didn’t sound upset, or defensive, like he might have expected. He couldn’t really read the tone of her voice. “You got drunk, blacked out and married a stripping whore, instead of trying to talk things through with me.”

“Alright, guess I deserve that,” he said. Because he knew, he did. “But you didn’t exactly make it easy to talk, seeing as you ran off to Chicago.”

“Yeah, I guess I deserve that too,” Jackie said, looking down at her own feet. None of them said anything for another beat of silence. Maybe, they had just needed to air it out. They had never had the fight about Chicago or Sam. They’d had a lot of fights, but not that one. In Chicago, he’d had the opportunity to either talk with Jackie or beat the shit out of Kelso. He had chosen a third option, opting for the El Camino. He wanted to go somewhere where he could get so drunk, he’d forget what either of them looked like, and whatever weird shit they were about to do. After he got back from Vegas, they had been about to talk, but then Sam had showed up and there hadn’t really been any talking after that.

After that, it had just been more or less passive aggressiveness and hostility, until Jackie had decided she was fucking in love with Fez, and she and Fez had ditched Point Place for San Francisco. Then Hyde saw her a lot less, and the problem solved itself. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail, but locks of it had fallen out, and were framing her face. Jackie worried her lip between her teeth. She turned her head to look up at him. “Hey, I should tell you this: I talked to David Gilmour a couple of months ago on the phone. Tried to convince him to come on the show.”

“Wait a minute, are you serious? You really-“ he started, practically fumbling over his words, until he saw the satisfied and definitely amused smirk on Jackie’s face. “That’s not a joke, Jackie.”

“But it’s funny like a joke,” Jackie said, her grin only wider. He could tell from the way, her eyes were practically shining, that she was on the verge of laughing. Hyde shook his head. “Besides, people in the industry usually have a publicist. If I had talked to anyone, I would have talked to them. You’re drunker than I thought you were, Hyde.”

“You’re so annoying,” he said quietly, even as a smile almost tugged at the edge of his mouth. Maybe they’d just needed to air it out, or maybe he really was drunk, but his chest felt lighter, than it had around Jackie in years. He was at least drunk enough to be willing to admit to himself that, he’d missed that feeling.

* * *

“So here we are, one Jackie Burkhart delivered straight to her affluent childhood home,” Hyde said, slurring slightly on the word affluent. Jackie just rolled her eyes at him behind his back. He was still drunk, clearly. Jackie felt the ground sway slightly underneath her, she wasn’t that drunk, but it was probably a good thing, she’d went home. She reached out for one of the columns on the porch for a moment. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Jackie was about to turn around to unlock the door, when Hyde finally broke the uncomfortable silence. He looked over her with something that looked a lot like pity. “Jackie, why are all the lights out?”

“My mom may have- left for Portugal three weeks ago,” Jackie said quickly. She didn’t owe Hyde anything, least of all an explanation, but there was no point in lying anyway. They were still friends, or at least sort of friends. If you could still call it that, when they barely saw each other. Despite all the stuff, that had happened in 1979, Jackie didn’t actively hate him at least. “I still had the key, and mom said I could stay here. Whatever, it’s not like you care anyway,” she said more defensively.

“Jackie, you’re drunk, tiny and alone,” Hyde retorted. In the dull light from the streetlights, she couldn’t read his expression. But then again, if she could have seen his face properly, she doubted, she’d be able to know what he was thinking. “Could you at least go back to Forman and Donna’s place, or you could even crash at mine. It’s just a stupid idea to stay here alone.”

“Drunk? Please, my mom’s been drunker than this on a Tuesday afternoon!” Jackie fired back. She was aware that, that wasn’t really a defence. But at least it might get him to shut up, or laugh. She would honestly be fine. It did make him smile, the edges of his mouth curving up slightly. “But thank you, again,” she said in a quieter less defensive tone, a smile sneaking onto her face too.

“Yeah, you don’t have to keep saying that,” Hyde said. He looked down to meet her eyes. He was still smiling. Before she really knew what was happening, she had two hands in his hair, and he had an arm around her, pulling towards each other, kissing him, hard. She opened her mouth immediately, and he grazed his teeth against her bottom lip, as she tugged at his hair slightly. He groaned at that, the noise bitten off by her kissing him again. She tilted her head back. His free hand held her chin, fingers splayed across her cheek. His hands felt warm, they’d always been warm. She remembered him always whining about her having cold hands, when they had slept next to each other in the cot.

“Ste-“ Jackie had forgotten how awesome they were at this. If they hadn’t made such a mess of it, they might have never stopped. She liked to think of herself as a good kisser, but it never got any better than this. Jackie suddenly realized, who exactly she was kissing. Her eyes flew wide open and she practically jumped backwards away from him. “Shit!” she exclaimed loudly, and she was suddenly really happy, her mom wasn’t home.

“No, no, no, no. You and me don’t do this. What the hell?” Steven rambled. He glared at Jackie, and she glared back. If he was going to blame this on her somehow, there’d be hell to pay. “You and me don’t do this anymore,” he said almost like he was trying to convince both of them.

“Steven, what part of me loudly swearing made it seem like I somehow planned on this?” Jackie fired back, crossing her arms. She took a couple of steps away from him, still feeling like she was too close to him, and swayed slightly. Jackie was drunk, drunker than she’d thought. Drunk and dumb enough to kiss her stupid, asshole ex-boyfriend, who never did anything a boyfriend’s supposed to do, who had married a stripper, and who she’d broken up with 10 years ago, and she’d kissed him. It didn’t matter, that he kind of looked nice with his hair slightly ruffled.

“Look, we’re just drunk. And we used to be together, ages ago. So, we probably just had a relapse, you know. Like alcoholics or something,” Steven said. Jackie nodded, that had to be it. She didn’t very much like the comparison, but it seemed to fit. “And to not embarrass ourselves further, we will never speak of it again.”

“You think I want to speak of it?” Jackie fired back, he just shrugged. Because of course, he did that. He never seemed to do anything else. And because she was partially embarrassed, and partially angry, and partially just because it was Steven _fucking_ Hyde, she continued. “I was engaged to a guy who was a partner in a law firm!”

“And you left the guy, so clearly I don’t know what you’d do,” Hyde fired back. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Steven looked away from her for a second, looking down at the ground before meeting her eyes. Jackie really wasn’t sure why. She’d given up trying to figure that out. "Look, the important thing is, that none of us is ever going to speak of this, ever.”

“Of course, we aren’t,” Jackie retorted. Apparently, he was always going to doubt her. Another reason why it was a dumb drunk mistake, obviously. Jackie crossed her arms. “I just want to forget about this whole thing already.”

“Yeah,” Steven replied, making something in her chest sink, that she didn’t want to own. “Same here.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we go, the last chapter of what is part 1 of this story. Chapter 5 through 8 will make up part 2, and chapter 9 through 14 will make up the third and final part. Thank you so much to anyone, who has kudos'ed this, or subscribed, or bookmarked it, it's awesome.

Point Place, Wisconsin

August 11th, 1989, 3:29 PM

Eric and Donna’s House

“Oh, get bent, Forman!” Hyde said, as Fez passed the joint to him. They didn’t smoke as much, as they used to, but with everyone actually in Point Place for once, they might as well. Kelso looked like, he was about to start laughing. Really, Hyde should have seen this coming, as soon as he’d mentioned that he had taken Jackie home the night before. Maybe, it was just because they were all high, but all of them seemed to think, that he still had some sort of feelings for Jackie. Hyde hadn’t even told them about the fact, that he’d kissed her, and he was absolutely not going to do that, no way.

“I’m just saying. Donna and I slept together, after we broke up, because her mom left. People relapse and get back together,” Forman said. He looked like he was about to start giggling. Hyde kind of wanted to punch him. “And you were going to marry Jackie, so maybe you’re still in looove.”

“Oh come on, Forman. It’s been like 10 years, since Hyde and Jackie broke up. If he’s still in love with her, he’s a wuss,” Kelso argued. He laughed. “I mean, Jackie is hot and all. But if she wanted to get back together now, I’d definitely say no. Because of Brooke, you know.”

“Yes, but you are in love and have babies with Brooke, Kelso,” Fez said. Fez paused and looked deep in thought for a moment. “I wonder if Kelly’s babies would like fruit loops?”

“Forman, I was never gonna marry Jackie!” Hyde argued. That was a lie, he hadn’t really wanted to marry Jackie back then, but he’d bought a ring, and he had planned to propose. Maybe he would grow into the whole marriage thing, if it was with Jackie. She was pretty much the only person, he could see himself actually being married to, when it came down to it. Even if he hadn’t felt ready for it. But whatever, he was too high, and it was too long ago, for it to truly matter. “And I’m guessing Kelly’s not going to want kids, she’s a model Fez.”

“Yeah right,” Forman said, and still looked like he was about to start giggling. This time, Hyde did decide to punch him. “Ow! Damn, I knew it was a bad idea to sit next to you.”

“Betsy doesn’t like fruit loops,” Kelso said, with the dopey smile, he always had when he was baked. And sometimes, when he wasn’t baked too. “She likes frosted flakes though. Willy throws most of his food on the floor, Brooke is trying to make him stop.”

“A true Kelso,” Fez said with something sounding a lot like pride, making all of them laugh, except Kelso, who looked a bit offended.

“ _Whatever_ , I love them. And I love Brooke,” Kelso said. “Hyde, do you still have that ring you were gonna use, when you wanted to marry Jackie? Because, maybe I could use it when I propose to Brooke- Ow! Damn Hyde, don’t hit me! I was just asking, man!”

“I already told you morons. I wasn’t going to marry Jackie!” Hyde replied. It was none of their damn business, any of them, even if it hadn’t already become a distant but faintly painful memory, a long time ago.

“Babies, huh?” Forman said, and now the laugh seemed a lot more nervous out of a sudden. They should probably explore this further, if nothing else for the potential for burning Forman. “I mean, it’s already weird that Kelso has two kids, but if anyone else was going to have children, that’d be pretty weird right?”

“Children are not weird, Eric,” Fez said in an overly serious tone. He always inevitably ended up talking like that, whenever he got high. “They are the miracle of life.”

“Yeah, Forman. What’s wrong, ‘Donna pregnant with quadruplets or something?” Hyde added. If Forman thought, he didn’t notice the way, his face went pale as a sheet, then he was overestimating how baked Hyde was. Even if Forman’s panic hadn’t been hilarious, Hyde was kind of happy with the distraction. He really needed to stop thinking about Jackie, just like his friends needed to stop asking about Jackie.

“Quadruplets? Women can’t have four-“ Forman mumbled quietly to himself. “Whatever, Donna can’t be pregnant!” he said more loudly, in that panicked voice all of them had heard a million times before. Hyde had to admit, he wanted to laugh.

“Because you and Donna never do it?” Kelso asked, making everyone but Eric laugh. That was a solid burn, but Forman had also practically set himself up for that one. Forman was practically red in the face, and clearly struggling to come up with something to counter that bit, almost spluttering, when he tried to talk.

“No. Because- Guys, Hyde walked Jackie back home and voluntarily spent time with her!” Forman squeaked, clearly trying to distract from something. Hyde had a pretty good idea, what it was. But Forman was bound to squeal, if he wanted to tell them. Donna must have shut him up on whatever it was, he was trying to hide from them. “Seize on that!”

“I bet you kissed her, and told her you loooved her,” Fez said, also earning himself a punch. Because really at this point, all of these morons needed to shut it, about whatever the hell, they thought, they knew about him and Jackie. Because they didn’t know shit, and there wasn’t even shit to know. Besides the fact, that they’d accidentally kissed. But that was none of his friends’ damn business. Now, he was even thinking in circles in the circles. He wasn’t even sure, if thinking in circles was a thing, that made sense. “Ai!”

“Alright, that’s it. I’m never hitting it with you idiots again,” Hyde said. But he could barely get through the sentence, before he started laughing. The other three guys laughed as well. All of them knew, he was lying. Fez handed him the joint, and he took another hit, all thoughts of drunkenly kissing Jackie finally leaving his head.

* * *

Donna was pacing, actually pacing up and down her and Eric’s bedroom. Jackie leant back against the bedrest. The comforter was a bland green colour, and she wondered what Donna had been thinking, when she’d picked it. Because surely, it had to be Donna. Eric wouldn’t set his foot in a furniture store. Jackie watched her friend. She was paler than usual, the fact that her hair was red again, wasn’t really helping her complexion either. But seeing as Donna had apparently been sick for a while last night, maybe that wasn’t such a big surprise. “You’re gonna drill a hole in the floor,” Jackie said, gesturing vaguely at Donna.

“Yeah, yeah, Jackie,” Donna said absentmindedly, and continued to pace. That one was new. Usually, Donna would at least attempt to fire back with something. Jackie gave her a curious look. Donna had tied her hair back in a bun, but hair was falling out of it. She was wearing a sweater and jogging pants. That was also new, usually Donna was wearing something at least a little bit nicer than that. Jackie’s influence had at least rubbed off a little bit.

“Donna, are you alright?” Jackie asked. She should in reality, just be grateful that Donna hadn’t asked, how Jackie had gotten home the night before, but she had to admit, she was actually worried about her friend. She leant a little bit forward. Donna gave her a look, that looked nervous more than anything else. She was clearly worried, Jackie just couldn’t figure out about what. “You look- Worse than usual.”

“Alright, fine, you really wanna know?” Donna asked. Jackie nodded, and Donna flopped down on the bed, spread out like a star fish, like she’d just collapsed. Donna was staring at the ceiling, almost like she didn’t want to look Jackie in the eye. Maybe, she did know something about the fact, that she’d walked home with Steven the night before and had that stupid kiss thing happen. Steven could have broken his promise, and told Eric, and if Eric knew anything about anything, Donna would know within 5 minutes. But even, Donna wouldn’t freak out that much about that. “Jackie, I think, I’m pregnant,” Donna finally said after a long pause, her voice small.

“Donna, that’s great! Sure, it’s Eric’s, which _is_ unfortunate, but that’s great,” Jackie said. Donna lifted her head, and looked over at Jackie. Jackie knew her well enough to be able to see the panic all over her face. “I mean, you guys still wanna have kids, right?” Jackie continued.

“Yes,” Donna said, and rolled onto her side, so she was facing Jackie. Donna made a grimace. “But, I just figured, you know- That we’d wait a couple more years. Get to see more of the world, before our lives were kind of over. And Eric really freaked out.”

“Eric freaks out about everything!” Jackie pointed out, making a small smile appear on Donna’s face. “I mean sure, you might have to stay home a bit more for a few years, because travelling with babies is kind of annoying. But you can still go, when the baby gets a bit older. Kids like seeing new places. It’s at least better than ditching them to go party somewhere.”

“So, I’m guessing your mom’s not home,” Donna interjected. As usual, her friend managed to see through her, better than Jackie necessarily liked.

“She met a rich French guy in Las Vegas, and went to his vacation home in Portugal,” Jackie replied. A maybe not so small part of her was grateful, she could think about something that wasn’t the can of worms, that was last night. She was happy for her friends, genuinely really happy, but if she had told Donna about what happened last night with Steven, she would have made it out to mean something. Which it very clearly did not. So talking about Donna maybe being pregnant was just easier.

“Why would a French guy have a vacation home in Portugal?” Donna asked, making Jackie smile. Jackie had stopped trying to make sense of her mother’s endless strings of boyfriends a long time ago. The French guy was far from the most out there. Before him, she’d dated a Russian oil guy, who had ten cats. Her mom had dumped him, because they didn’t get to travel around enough, he was too busy taking care of the cats. Of course, her mom had also dated Donna’s dad, which was almost even worse. Jackie had long since stopped putting too much thought into it.

“That’s like asking why Michael isn’t too bright. No one knows, Donna,” Jackie retorted, making Donna mirror her smile. Neither of them said anything for a beat of silence. She swallowed hard before she continued. Out of the two of them, they’d always imagined Jackie would be the one with a family first. Because Jackie had never been as interested in the whole travelling thing, as Donna was. But Jackie wasn’t even disappointed or upset about this. She was genuinely happy for Eric and Donna. “Look, do you wanna have a baby with Eric?” she asked, her tone more serious.

“Yes,” Donna said quietly, sincerely. She cleared her throat. “And you’re right, we’ll work it out. We don’t have to put our lives on hold, just because we’re having a baby. Although, I’m guessing, it’s not a good idea to visit the school Eric taught at in Africa in 6 months time, like we planned on doing.”

“Probably not,” Jackie agreed with a smile, an honest, happy feeling in her chest. If Donna couldn’t talk some sense into Eric, Jackie would. Her friends deserved to be happy, and even if Eric was Eric, Donna at least deserved to be happy. “Mrs Forman is going to have a field day with this.”

“Oh god, I didn’t even think about that,” Donna said, clearly picturing it in her head, just like Jackie was. Mrs Forman hadn’t dealt well with no longer having kids in the house, and if there was a new baby in the family, she might permanently move into Eric and Donna’s shed. “Might have to hold off on telling the Formans for a while, if you can keep your mouth zipped.”

“You got it,” Jackie replied. She rearranged herself on the bed, as Donna pushed herself up into a sitting position. “So, do you know what you want to name them if it’s a boy? What if it’s a girl?”


	5. Chapter 5

Part 2: In which the gang celebrates New Year's Eve in Chicago, and have probably the most eventful one since 1979.

Chicago, Illinois

December 31st, 1989, 3:15 pm

Kelso and Brooke’s kitchen

“God, why couldn’t I be with Fez and Michael looking after the kids?” Jackie complained, when a tomato slice splat on the floor. She hated cooking, despised it actually. Usually, she got by with takeout and the food court at work. Brooke gave her a sympathetic smile. They had actually all managed to make it to the New Year’s party this year. But even though, it was already 3 PM, she and Fez were the only ones, who had gotten here. Apparently, there was a pile up, so Steven, Eric and Donna were stuck in traffic. Fez’ fiancée Kelly was on a job in Europe, so she couldn’t be there either. If Jackie hadn’t actually met her, she would have seriously started to think that she was just a figment of Fez’ imagination. But that meant that Jackie was stuck helping Brooke cook. “Sorry, I know you probably hate this too,” she said.

“It’s okay. I’d ask Michael to help, but you’d be surprised by the amount of times, he’s burnt either himself, food or a tea towel,” Brooke said. She looked almost endeared by that, judging by the smile on her face. “I figured, you would be less of a disaster.”

“Actually, I’m not surprised by any of that,” Jackie replied with a small smile, not even annoyed by that. It wasn’t a secret, that she hated cooking. It was funny, she’d always thought the fact, that Michael could act like such an idiot, was annoying. For Jackie, it used to be a reminder than Michael couldn’t be the kind of fancy rich lawyer, she wanted him to be, just like her father said, he wouldn’t be. Of course, that was a little stupid in hindsight. But Brooke seemed to like it, actually genuinely like it. It wasn’t a bug, it was a feature.

Sure, they’d fought, like when Brooke found out the only reason, she and Michael had broken off whatever they had been trying to make it work, when she was pregnant with Betsy, was because of her mom interfering. Or about how to take care of Betsy, and later Will. But for the most part, they were stable, they just seemed to work. They were completely different people, but somehow it just seemed to work. It was weird, like they had the right kind of things in common. Jackie and Michael had always seemed to be similar when they were together, but in reality, a world away from each other. Jackie had thought her problem was, that she fell in love with people, who were too different from her. At least, that had been her conclusion after she broke up with Steven. She and Fez were similar, she was sure even Fez would admit that.

“Jackie, you haven’t said anything in 5 minutes. Is everything okay?” Brooke asked with a small smile. She and Steven had been different people, disagreed on absolutely everything. Sure, he’d caught her humming some of his songs, when they were together. But Led Zeppelin songs were easy to get stuck in your head. And Steven had kept the lavender scented candle, she’d given him. He had said, it was to cover up the smell of the Circle, but the lie was so half-assed, Jackie could easily tell, he was lying. But that kind of stuff wasn’t enough, they were still too different. God, why was she even thinking about this? That kiss was still screwing with her head, clearly, even though she had been trying to push it out of her head for a good 5 months.

“I don’t know,” Jackie said, weighing whether or not to vent at least some of her frustrations to Brooke. Fez and Michael seemed to be occupied with the kids, and unlike any of her other friends, Brooke probably wouldn’t say anything. “Can you keep a secret?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just listen, while I keep stirring the sauce, if that’s okay,” Brooke said, turning back towards the stove. Jackie was actually kind of grateful, that Brooke wasn’t looking at her.

“That’s fine,” Jackie started, trying to get back at it with the tomatoes. “I guess- I mean, I really love my job, and it’s not like I need a boyfriend, not really. But I guess, I’ve just been thinking about some boyfriend related stuff. I guess, I was just thinking about, how did you just forgive Michael after everything that happened?”

“Well, it helped a lot, when I figured out my mom was basically the one, who had made him drop our plans,” Brooke admitted, worrying her lip between her teeth. “But before that, I guess. He really started trying with Betsy- You know, he wasn’t just going to ditch her. And I guess, it was some of the same stuff, that made me kind of like him in the first place. I mean, he always tried to make me laugh, he was surprisingly sweet, tried to be honest and sincere. And I guess, I just liked Michael more than I was mad at him. And after he moved here, we started talking more and more, and stuff just- worked itself out. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie admitted. She did know, but she wasn’t exactly sure, she wanted to tell Brooke all the grisly details of that. The kiss was the problem. It hadn’t felt like kissing a guy, who had been her boyfriend, broken her heart and stomped on it, and she’d moved on. It hadn’t felt like it meant nothing. “Just weird stuff, I’ve been rethinking some things, I guess.”

“Is it about that guy, you came with to Eric and Donna’s wedding, who kept trying to shush Betsy and complain about her being loud?” Brooke asked. Jackie flinched, she hadn’t known, John had done that. Nobody had told her.

“Did John really do that?” Jackie started, and looked over at Brooke. Jackie gave her an apologetic look. She loved her goddaughter, and she’d thought John at least tolerated her. “And no, it’s not about him.”

“And I’m guessing it’s not about Fez either,” Brooke continued. Jackie nodded. As much as she loved hanging out with Fez, it was just that. Hanging out. “So, I suppose that means, it’s about Hyde?”

“Hey, it could be about someone else!” Jackie protested, even though she’d already known, that was the conclusion Brooke was going to jump too, after making sure it wasn’t Fez or John. Brooke gave her a sceptical look, she clearly didn’t believe Jackie for a single second. Jackie swallowed hard. “Alright, fine. You’re right, it is about Steven,” Jackie said a little quieter with a small sigh.

“You guys broke up ten years ago, and you were about to marry someone else. What changed?” Brooke asked. Jackie shrugged.

“I don’t know. Something happened a couple of months ago, and it just made me think about things,” Jackie said. She looked down on her own hands. She hated feeling unsure about things, she usually always knew what to do. It reminded her of when she’d found out about Michael and Laurie. Or any of the times, she and Steven had broken up. “But you’re right. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Brooke replied with a small smile. “I mean, I didn’t know either of you that well, when you were together, and you didn’t exactly make that double date any less uncomfortable. But around each other- you guys seemed like you got along like a house on fire.”

“But we never agreed about anything,” Jackie argued, even though she knew that wasn’t entirely true. Jackie tried to concentrate on the salad again. “Whatever, it’s never worked out.”

“Well, you seemed comfortable around each other, like you meant a lot to each other. Maybe with a little less arguing, it was probably the kind of relationship I would have wanted to have, when I got pregnant with my first baby,” Brooke said. Jackie squirmed, and didn’t meet her eyes. “But try talking to him. It sounds like you still need to either put it completely behind you, or something else.”

“See, that I can do,” Jackie said, already knowing what she was going to do. No way in hell, was she going to talk to Steven. He would probably get the wrong idea and go marry a stripper again or something. But putting it behind her, and never thinking about it again. That she could do. “And Brooke, can we just forget, we had this conversation?”

“Sure thing,” the older woman said. Jackie smiled at her, and Brooke smiled back. “Now get back on the salad, Burkhart.”

* * *

There was always something kind of nice about visiting Kelso in Chicago, besides seeing his friend again, if Hyde was honest. The house was always loud. It was a small house with a toddler, a ten-year-old girl and a guy who still loved firing off bottle rockets despite being 30 years old, it was bound to happen. Sure, Hyde liked being alone, always had. But he’d gotten used to the noise, when he’d been living at the Formans. It was nice, that there was noise, that there were people around. Unless, he blasted music, his apartment was usually pretty quiet.

Someone had put on Michael Jackson in the living room, that had to be Brooke. But it was essentially deafened by Fez and Betsy laughing. Betsy was practically trying to sit on top of Jackie, giggling at her. Fez was trying to stick stickers on Jackie from a sticker book. There was a cartoon monkey sticker from that videogame, sitting on Jackie’s nose, only half stuck and askew. Clearly, Jackie wasn’t an easy target. “I thought, you said, you were better at this than me!” Betsy complained.

“Well, if you could keep her still, little lady, that would help a great deal,” Fez fired back. Hyde wasn’t sure whether it was part of the joke, that Betsy was the one trying to hold Jackie down, or whether Fez just didn’t realize, that maybe getting a ten-year-old to hold down Jackie, regardless of how small she was, wasn’t the best idea. It could easily be either one of those. Kelso came back from the kitchen with little Will on his arm. Will was busy staring at his own hands, and Kelso was clearly about to burst out laughing, when he saw what was going on. “Ai! She pinches,” Fez complained.

“Think she’ll struggle less if you stick to the princess stickers, Bets,” Hyde interjected, crossing his arms. Both Forman and Donna had already headed for the kitchen, as soon as the three of them had gotten here, to help out Brooke. “They’re prettier.”

“You don’t like these?” Betsy asked, looking a little disappointed, and Hyde wanted to eat his words immediately. Jackie and Fez would have thought, he was joking, but that was no guarantee a ten-year-old kid would think so, no matter how smart she was.

“No, I love them, Bets,” Jackie hurried to reassure her, and glared at him, before turning her attention back to the girl. Fez had let go of Jackie. Jackie sat up and fixed her hair. Her hair was a little shorter, compared to last time, he’d seen her. Not that he was noticing. “Steven is just being mean.”

“She’s right. Hyde is just a grumpy old man, Betsy,” Fez added, and he was almost annoyed both his friends had turned against him, until he saw the smile on Betsy’s face.

“Tell you what, you can pick any one of those stickers and stick it to my face, and I won’t take it off tonight,” Jackie said, and that was a little surprising. He wondered, if she actually meant that. Betsy even gave Jackie a sceptical look. “I mean it, any one of them all night,” Jackie said more stubbornly.

Betsy opened the sticker book, and peeled off a King Koopa sticker, at least that’s what Hyde thought it was called, unlike Kelso he didn’t play those games all the time and stuck it to Jackie’s cheek. It was probably one of the biggest stickers in the book, besides one of Mario himself. “There you go,” Betsy said with a brighter smile, clearly knowing exactly what she was doing.

“Betsy, honey, come say hi to Eric and Donna,” Brooke called from the kitchen, immediately making Betsy hurry out of the living room.

“I should say hi to Eric and Donna too,” Fez said, before leaving. Jackie shifted a little from foot to foot, like she was unsure about what to say. He felt the same way, he was just a little better at hiding it. They hadn’t had a single conversation, since their walk back to the Burkhart mansion.

“So, you really gonna keep that thing on all night?” Hyde asked, because he had nothing else to say. He had his hands buried deep in his pockets.

“Well maybe, I thought she’d pick the princess one?” Jackie said, almost teasingly. It was the least hostile thing, she’d said to him, since they’d jumped each other at the mansion, like there wasn’t a whole lot of shit between them. “And yes, of course I am, Steven.”

He had noticed that. Jackie had started calling him Steven again, after what happened in August, he wasn’t sure if she had yet. Like things were back to square one between them, like they were Jackie and Steven, instead of Jackie and Hyde, two separate people who had nothing to do with each other. Hyde shook the thought from his head. Jackie could call him whatever the hell, she wanted. It didn’t change that they still had nothing to do with each other. That was the way, it worked best.


	6. Chapter 6

Chicago, Illinois

December 31st, 1989, 7:21 PM

Kelso and Brooke’s dining room

The sticker was still sitting on Jackie’s face, once they got to dessert. Sure, Steven had assumed, she would want to get it off, but it wasn’t about that. This was about making Betsy happy, if it happened to prove Steven wrong in the process, it didn’t exactly hurt either. Jackie cut off a piece of chocolate cake. She and Steven had barely spoken, since this afternoon. Not that, that was anything new. In fact, their friends would probably have noticed more, if they suddenly got along, or alternatively were yelling at each other. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Jackie said, looking over at Donna. “Your feet are even swelling too much for your giant shoes?”

“Shut up, Jackie!” Donna fired back, but she was smiling, even as she said it. Donna was taking the whole pregnancy thing a lot easier now, than she had, but Jackie knew, she still liked making jokes about it. It made it feel like less of a big life changing thing. Jackie might be fairly convinced, she wanted to have kids someday, but she could still imagine it being terrifying, when it came down to it.

“So, big D,” Michael started, looking curious at Donna. He set his drink down on the dinner table. “You wanna eat anything weird yet? Because Brooke was practically eating Oreos for breakfast, when she was pregnant with Will.”

“Michael-“ Brooke said, rolling her eyes. But Jackie noticed, she was smiling, as she cut a piece of the chocolate cake.

“Dad, Oreos aren’t weird. What are you talking about?” Betsy protested, giving her dad a glare. Fez looked as proud, as if Betsy was his daughter, and not Michael’s. Jackie almost let out a laugh, but instead pointedly looked down at her plate. Then Fez sent Kelso a betrayed look.

“I thought, we were friends,” Fez said under his breath, still glaring at Kelso.

“I- Let´s get back on track,” Michael hurried, seeing as both Betsy and Fez were looking at him, like he’d betrayed them. “Weird foods? Had any of them, big D?”

“Ow! I was just asking, Donna! Damn!” Donna hadn’t answered, but instead just punched Michael firmly in the arm. Steven looked like he was about to start laughing, and barely avoiding it. He looked, well, good. Thankfully, he hadn’t had the moustache, since sometime before Eric and Donna’s wedding, and his face was cleanly shaven. All the other boys were wearing a dress shirt, but Steven was wearing a t-shirt, obviously. The Who, if Jackie wasn’t wrong.

She could admit the fact, that he looked really good. Sure, he had annoyed her earlier, and she was going to do a better job of putting what happened in August behind her. But that didn’t mean, she couldn’t admit to herself, that he looked nice. The first step to solving a problem, was admitting you had one, or something like that. Jackie pushed the thought out of her head and turned her attention back to how Michael was trying to get Eric to spill Donna’s cravings. It wasn’t going well.

* * *

Once dinner was done, everyone had settled in Kelso and Brooke’s living room. Hyde was always surprised the couch and the arm chairs didn’t look worse, considering two kids and Kelso lived here. There wasn’t actually space for all of them, so Kelso and Fez were still sitting at the dining table in the other side of the room. He and Jackie each had an arm chair with the couch in between them, not that he would have minded sitting on the couch or anything. That definitely wasn’t the reason. “Mommy, why can’t we go to Fatso Burger for my birthday? Julia had her birthday there.” Betsy asked, sitting in between Brooke and Donna on the couch.

“Sweetie, you know they don’t like your dad at Fatso Burger,” Brooke said, making Hyde raise an eyebrow. Whatever Brooke was talking about, he hadn’t heard about before. But that figured, with all the shit Kelso did. Some of it had to pass him by without notice. “He’s not allowed within 50 yards of any of the Fatso Burgers in Chicago.”

“Can’t we just go without dad, then?” Betsy asked, making Kelso let out an offended shriek. Brooke shook her head, clearly on the verge of laughing.

“I’m sorry, dad,” Betsy said in Kelso’s direction. The girl had a serious expression on her face. “But Julia had her birthday there, and it was so cool.”

“Wait, Kelso do you have a restraining order against Fatso Burger?” Forman asked. If Hyde wasn’t wrong, Jackie squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. Normally Hyde wouldn’t have noticed what Jackie was doing, and he definitely wasn’t looking. It was just obvious. Even if he had no idea, what this was about, Jackie clearly did. “You’re a cop, how do you even do that?”

“I don’t have a restraining order! They just banned me, because-“ Kelso protested. He looked over at the sofa and the chairs. Jackie practically chugged the rest of her drink. “Whatever, those guys are jerks anyway.”

“Figures, we’re the ones who ste- I mean, borrow Fatso the Clown for a night,” Hyde quickly corrected himself, partially because of both Brooke and Kelso’s glare at him. Fair enough, but he wasn’t used to having kids around. Angie and her husband hadn’t had kids yet, and most of the other friends he occasionally saw in Milwaukee or Kenosha, he wasn’t that close with, and Forman and Donna didn’t have any kids yet either, even though they were obviously on the way. “And Kelso is the one who gets himself banned for life.”

“Were you about to say steal?” Betsy cut in, before pausing to yawn. Guess, it was fairly late for a ten-year-old kid. Her little brother was already fast asleep. “Was that what he was gonna say, dad?” Betsy asked, looking at Kelso.

“Alright, you’re going to bed, little lady,” Kelso said, before Hyde had a chance to answer something. Nobody else brought up anything else relating to Fatso Burger, until Kelso had headed up the stairs with Betsy.

“I forgot how good this tastes,” Fez said, taking a sip of his drink, grinning widely. He looked happier, than Hyde had seen him, since the vending machine at the Hub broke, and he’d been able to get free candy for a week, before anyone had noticed. “It’s like liquid gold.”

“I’m going to go in the kitchen,” Jackie said, pointedly looking at the three people left on the couch. If he cared, he probably would have thought, she was deliberately trying to avoid him. But he definitely didn’t care, so he wasn’t thinking that. She tugged her hair behind her ears. Jackie wasn’t uncomfortable often, usually just bulldozing through life, but when she was, it was easy to tell. “Does anyone want anything?”

“You guys stole Fatso the Clown?” Eric said to Donna, as Jackie headed for the kitchen door, when nobody wanted anything. Looked like Donna hadn’t told Forman about their trip to Fatso Burger with Randy. Not that Forman had a habit of getting bitchy about Randy or anything, he’d gotten over it relatively quickly after he got back from Africa. Hyde got up from his chair and headed towards the kitchen.

“Hey,” he said, as he closed the kitchen door behind him. Jackie was leaning against the counter, twirling her drink in her glass. Hyde paused next to her, she didn’t look up at him. “So, what actually happened with Kelso and the Fatso Burger thing? You look, like you know something.”

“Believe me,” Jackie started, and turned her head to look at him. She was trying to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You of all people, don’t want me to tell that story.”

“Jackie, come on,” Hyde started. He took a step closer to her, and Jackie set her glass down on the counter. “If it’s a burn on Kelso, it can’t be that bad for you. Unless, you two got caught doing it in a Fatso Burger bathroom, in which case I really don’t want to hear about that.”

“Alright fine,” she said, clearly ignoring the last part of what he’d said. He wasn’t sure how to take that. “I made Michael go get a burger with me. Once we got there, I went to the bathroom and made Michael order for us. He wanted them to mix up the soda flavours, so he could get both Cherry Pop, Orangina and Cola in one cup. The guy behind the counter complained that he couldn’t do that, and apparently-“

“That’s why, Kelso is banned from Fatso Burger? That’s not even that bad,” Hyde interjected. Jackie took a sip of her drink and worried her lip. “The fact that, we stole the clown is way worse.”

“It gets worse,” Jackie said, almost like she was reassuring him. “Michael broke the soda machine. I don’t know how, it wasn’t a self-service one, but when I got out from the bathroom, it was spraying soda everywhere. All the employees and Michael were soaked with soda. Then the deep fry set on fire too. I had to drive Michael back to the motel, so he could take a shower-“

“Wait a minute, motel?” Hyde cut her off, having a sneaking suspicion, he knew what she was going to answer to his next question. “When the hell was this?”

“The night, Michael drove me to Chicago,” Jackie said with a deep breath. Something tightened in Hyde’s chest, that he didn’t want to own. It was so tempting to just leave the kitchen, and not hear whatever it was Jackie was going to say. But for some reason, his feet were nailed to the ground. The expression on Jackie’s face was obvious, sincere. If he knew her at all, she wasn’t lying. “I was going to tell you, Steven, I promise. I just- You took off, and when you got back, I was really upset. And I missed my shot to tell you, before Sam showed up. It didn’t seem as important to tell you, after. Seeing as you clearly didn’t mind keeping your stripper wife around.”

“So, Kelso saying that crap about you two sleeping together?” Hyde asked. He already knew, what the answer would be, as he asked.

“It’s Michael, Steven,” Jackie said. She worried her hands. He believed her, everything about the way, she was standing told him, she was actually being sincere. Besides, she didn’t exactly have a reason to bullshit him now. It had been ten years. Neither of them wanted to pick up, where they left off. What happened in August, had made that clear. “Remember that time, Eric tried to tackle him, so he didn’t say something like that to Mrs. Forman?”

“I guess, I kinda- I wanted to hope you didn’t, sleep with Kelso, you know,” he started, looking down at his hands, the words coming out quieter than he’d thought. Hyde looked over at her for a moment. “But come on, Jackie, what was I supposed to think? You took off before, I could give you an answer. I figured you’d finally decided you could do better than me- Whatever.”

“What? Like Michael?” Jackie asked. He really wanted to leave the kitchen, and just go back to the living room. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but he could kind of hear the smile in her voice, like she thought the idea was ridiculous or something. She put her hand on his shoulder, making him catch her eye. “Steven, you were always leagues ahead of Michael.”

“Could have been a little clearer about that,” Hyde replied. He wanted to tell her, that the only reason, he’d stuck around with Sam, was because he thought everything had been blown up between them. There hadn’t been anything to fix, he’d been pissed off at Jackie, and Sam had just seemed like the easy way out. At least that’s what he’d thought, he’d been wrong clearly, but that’s what he’d thought. But he wasn’t sure, how to say any of that.

“I know. And I’m really sorry about that,” Jackie said, her hand still on his shoulder. She didn’t seem intent on moving it. A small pathetic part of him, didn’t really want her to either. A loud noise echoed from the living room, and Jackie immediately turned her head. “Oh god, was that Fez’ vomit noise? Does Michael and Brooke have Amaretto?”

“Well, obviously not anymore,” he not so helpfully supplied, with a smirk.

“Steven!” she squawked, but she was smiling too, like she was about to laugh. Neither of them said anything for a moment, both just grinning. “I better go check on Fez,” she said, making a move for the kitchen door.

“Jackie, hold on a second,” Hyde said, once she’d moved past him. He had to say something, anything was better than nothing. Even if he was a lot better at nothing, then anything else. “I just- Back then. Not now, obviously. But back then, you probably wouldn’t have needed to get me wasted, to make me wanna marry you.”

For a moment, something passed over her face, that he couldn’t quite identify. His throat tightened and he was grateful for the shades. Her hands clenched and unclenched, before she let her arms fall down by her side. Her expression was blank. “That’s cool,” she said quietly, before turning to leave the kitchen, to help Fez out.


	7. Chapter 7

Chicago, Illinois

December 31st, 1989, 10:36 PM

Michael Kelso and Brooke Rockwell’s bathroom

It was stupid, Jackie knew that. She hated, that it got to her a little bit. Actually, more than a little bit, if Jackie allowed herself to be honest. _You probably wouldn’t have needed to get me wasted, to make me wanna marry you_ , it was typical, he was always late with everything. Fez let out a pathetic sound, and Jackie stroked his back comfortingly. Or as comforting, as she knew how to be. She was sort of thankful for the distraction, even if it did come at the expense of Fez’ lack of self-control, when it came to Amaretto. She’d been determined earlier, to push what had happened in August out of her head, and what Steven had said, was not helping.

“Ai, this is evil,” Fez said, sitting back up. He looked less green in the face now. Jackie gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. Fez wiped his forehead and looked like he drew a heavy breath.

“Well, Fezzie that can’t surprise you that much. You remember what happened, when Steven gave you that whole bottle of Amaretto on the ski trip,” Jackie started. Fez rolled his eyes. “And you ran out of the cabin to go make a snow angel in your underwear.”

“I would rather forget, Goddess,” Fez said, looking down on the orange tiled floor. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Jackie pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. “And since, when is it Steven again?” Fez asked, practically making her jump out of her skin.

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked, even though she knew what he meant. She usually called him Hyde now, she’d started doing it to prove how indifferent, she was, and the habit had stuck. But she didn’t call him Steven, it had just been a slip up.

“Well, it’s always ‘Hyde this’ or ‘Hyde that’ now,” Fez said, thankfully looking like he was oblivious to Jackie’s inner panic. “Do I have to call off my wedding with my lady love, so we can elope together, once you’re done with Hyde?”

“Fez!” she said, honestly more than slightly offended. She punched his arm, and he let out a yelp of pain. Jackie took a deep breath, before she continued. She couldn’t believe, Fez thought she was still hung up on Steven! This night had been all about taking Brooke’s advice and pushing the fluke in August out of her head. “I was done with Steven, ten years ago, when he decided to keep his stripper wife around, and screw her.”

“Well, he obviously only did that, because he thought you wanted to do it with Kelso,” Fez said, leaning his head against the tiled wall. That wasn’t an excuse, and Fez should know that. At the very least, Jackie hoped Steven knew that. But then she reminded herself, that it didn’t matter what Steven thought about that. Not anymore. “I mean, he kept babbling about how he was going to be ‘Mrs Jackie Hyde’ when we headed home from the warehouse.”

“Wait, a second, Fezzie what do you mean?” Jackie said, before she could stop herself.

“Hah, I knew it,” Fez said victoriously. Jackie immediately punched his shoulder. “Ai, stop hurting me! Fine, remember how you got all mad, because instead of saying he was going to marry you, we went to the warehouse with Charlie, the magnificent bastard? Well, Hyde was trying to make up his mind, and he said, he was going to be ‘Mrs Jackie Hyde.’”

If it had just been something Steven had said once, when he was wasted, Jackie could have said, it was a joke, and be completely right about it too. Ten years ago, Jackie would have probably thought he was being embarrassing, if anyone had been about to be Mrs Jackie Hyde it was her, thank you very much. But she could imagine him saying it now and making her giggle at it. Jackie squandered the thought, she was definitely letting herself get carried away. She was supposed to be getting over this, put the thing after the Water Tower behind her. Fez had probably been wasted out of his mind too.

“Wait, weren’t you drunk that day too?” Jackie asked, ignoring how her insides felt like they were bursting. She’d screwed it up, she should never have left, before he’d actually given her answer.

“A bit, but I get bored of beer. Fruity drinks taste better. I remember, because I tried to tease him about it, after he came back from Las Vegas, and Hyde frogged me,” Fez said. Jackie pushed herself up from the tile floor. In her head, she was trying to find an excuse to find a moment away from Fez. But her head was buzzing, with the same thought. Steven had been about to say yes. She’d left without hearing him out, and when she came back, he’d been too pissed off to want to say anything to her. Because of course, he had been, it was _Steven_.

“Well, you’re clearly drunk now, Fez,” Jackie said. Steven, because of his insecurities, had thought she’d ditched him. Of course, he’d been too pissed off to trust her, and give her a yes, when she’d gotten back. “If you think, some stupid drunk crap, _Hyde_ said ten years ago, is going to change how I feel. I’m gonna go get you some water.”

“But we’re in the bathroom!” Fez protested, as the door shut behind her. Jackie had barely closed the bathroom door, before she practically bumped into Steven. Because of course she did, because everything that had happened in the last half hour seemed to indicate, that contrary to popular belief, the universe did in fact hate her. “Is Fez okay?” Steven said, without looking her in the eyes.

“Better now,” Jackie started, not looking at him either. Her legs wouldn’t carry her to the kitchen, so she could escape this conversation. “I’m just going to get him some water.”

“But you were just in the bathroom,” he said, gesturing towards the door, that Jackie had just walked out of.

“Well, I needed a glass!” Jackie retorted sharply.

“Look, man. I probably shouldn’t have said that shit earlier,” Steven said. Jackie knew a Steven apology, when she saw one. But she wasn’t sure, this warranted one. As much, as it made everything a mess inside her head, it was probably for the best, that he’d said it.

“No, it’s fine,” Jackie hurried to say. “I mean, we’ve always been bad at saying important stuff to each other. Figures we start ten years too late.”

“Yeah, I guess, I get what you mean. We never talked about any of this crap, and then we always just assumed the worst. When it came down to it,” Hyde said. He put his hands in his pockets and shuffled a little awkwardly. “We kind of sucked at the whole trust thing.”

“And before you knew it, something like the nurse incident happened,” Jackie replied. Or the fact, that she’d run off to Chicago, or tried to push Steven to marry her, instead of trusting that he wasn’t going to bail. But it felt easier to say that.

“And then someone ran off to Chicago, without hearing me out,” Hyde replied.

“And then _someone_ married a stripper,” Jackie fired back.

“What, you married a stripper too? What a crazy coincidence,” Hyde retorted. Jackie rolled her eyes, she should have seen that coming from a mile away. She also hated, that she almost smiled at that. Because it absolutely was not funny. “Sorry. I was an asshole. I’m being a dillhole.”

“Yeah. Look, we did the talking. Can we just have a nice New Year’s Eve, and not think about the past too much?” Jackie said.

“Sounds like a decent deal, Jacks.”

* * *

  
Chicago, Illinois

January 1st, 1990, 4:02 AM

Michael Kelso and Brooke Rockwell’s living room

Even though, the beer was getting flat, Hyde chugged the last of it, and turned the TV in the living room off. Forman yawned, and headed for the stairs to go to bed, with a silent wave. The only people who hadn’t gone to bed already, were himself, Forman and technically Jackie. Hyde rubbed his eyes for a moment. It was late, 4 AM late. No better way to begin the New Year, than to watch concert movies, that were being run on TV in the middle of the night. He sat up and looked out of the window in Brooke and Kelso’s living room. It had started to snow. Jackie was currently asleep on the floor, resting her head on the seat of one of the armchairs in a position, that couldn’t possibly be comfortable. He should probably wake her up.

“Jackie,” he shook her slightly, but she didn’t wake up. One of her arms just kind of tried to swat him, which wasn’t surprising, considering the fact that it was Jackie. He shook her a little harder, without being too harsh. “Jacks, you should wake up. It’s 4 AM.”

“Steven?” Jackie said, looking a little confused for a moment, blinking her eyes, as she looked up at him. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Jackie tried to sort out her hair, but it was clearly in disarray, and she was tired, so she wasn’t doing a particularly good job of working on it. “It’s 4 AM?”

“Yes. Come on, get up,” Hyde said, as he pulled her up from the floor. He grabbed Jackie’s arm and pulled her up from the floor. She glared at him or tried to at least. Although she looked a lot more awake now, than she had earlier. He managed to pull her onto her feet. “Otherwise, you’ll just be bitching about having slept on the floor tomorrow morning, and that’ll give me a headache.”

“If it’s 4 AM, how the hell are you not tired?” Jackie asked, completely ignoring what he had just said. He was, but he wasn’t going to say that. Hyde had volunteered to take the couch, and while he could technically let Jackie could sleep on the floor in Brooke and Kelso’s living room, he would really rather, that she just got into the guest room, so he could sleep in peace. “Did you turn into a vampire or something?”

“Would you just get into the guest room, so I can crash on the couch?” Hyde asked, hoping that finally she would take a hint. Her hair was muzzled, curls falling out of the hairdo she’d had for the party earlier. Her lipstick had gotten smudged on her face, after she decided to fall asleep on the floor. Not, that he was noticing, much. She sat down on the couch, which really wasn’t helping in the slightest.

“Do I really look so awful, that you have to stare at me, Steven?” she said, still fiddling with her hair, even though it was probably beyond saving until she’d had at least 12 hours of sleep. At least, that was what he would imagine, Jackie would say, if she was less tired. He didn’t even know, why he was thinking like that. Hyde had to be really tired, if he was thinking like Jackie. All the more reason to make her go to sleep.

“It’s like a car crash, Jackie. Just can’t look away,” he fired back, but it sounded a lot less mean, than he’d planned on. Regardless, she still tried to shove him, but there was no real force behind that either, with her sitting on the couch and him standing up, and instead her hand just kind of fell flatly against his chest. She was probably just as tired, as he felt, because to his surprise she didn’t move her hand. Her mouth was soft and warm, when he crouched down awkwardly to kiss her. Jackie moved her hands to cup his face, and he sunk down onto the couch next to her. She angled her head towards him, her mouth moving lazily against his.

The angle is bad, so he made a quick decision and pulled her onto his lap, before he could tell himself not to do exactly that. She pushed herself closer towards him, making him groan. He was aware, that they should absolutely stop doing this, she probably knew that too. It’s one thing to accidentally kiss her once, when you’re drunk. It’s another thing entirely to make out on a couch in the middle of the night. But maybe it’s because he’s tired, maybe it’s because some pathetic long forgotten part of him missed her a little bit, but he really doesn’t want to stop. She moved her mouth against his, and he grazed her lip with his teeth, making her let out a small whine. Her hands felt amazing. Everything felt amazing.

But on the other hand, he’s making out with Jackie _fucking_ Burkhart. He pulled himself away from her, Jackie’s hands dropping to her lap. Her lips were red, and not because of her smudged lipstick. More of her hair had fallen out of her hairdo. She was clearly as out of breath, as he was. “Fucking hell,” he swore under his breath.

“Steven, we can’t keep doing this,” Jackie said, quickly getting off him. She didn’t meet his eyes. He could imagine, she was just as disgruntled, embarrassed or whatever, as she had been that time after the water tower.

“You’re not wrong,” he replied, and maybe he’s a coward, but he doesn’t look at her either. She said something about going to sleep, and she finally _finally_ left the living room. He switched the one lamp still on, off and flipped back on the couch. That was his damn problem, it felt exactly the same. He wasn’t in love with Jackie anymore, he hadn’t exactly pined after her or whatever. But it still felt the same, as back when things between them were good, and they weren’t fighting about getting or not getting married. When it was just the two of them together. It was 4 AM, he was tired. That had to be why, he was thinking like this. He closed his eyes, he had to stop thinking about it, or he was never going to fall asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for any kudos, bookmarks and comments on this story. It really does mean a lot.

Chicago, Illinois

January 1st, 1990, 9:37 AM

Michael Kelso & Brooke Rockwell’s house

As soon as the noise in the house started up, Jackie wished, she could go back to sleep. If nothing else, because it might block out last night from her head again. She and Steven had kissed again, and not just a quick kiss and then jumped away from each other in horror. No, they’d made out, actually made out like they used to do, when there was no one else in the basement. Jackie buried her head in her pillow. Closing her eyes didn’t help, she could still clearly picture it. She hadn’t even been drunk last night, making it all together a hell of a lot harder to justify. Jackie sat up and rubbed her temples.

They had talked last night, about so many of the things, that Jackie would have given her best pairs of shoes and her right arm to hear him say, back when the stripper whore showed up. But it had felt hopeless back then, hopeless to try and explain things with Michael and the motel, hopeless to say anything that could try and convince Steven to ditch Sam. So, instead Jackie had let everything crumble, fade away, until they were back here again. Maybe, that was why she’d let herself just kiss him, and ignore everything between them for a moment. Because they had finally actually talked.

That had to be the explanation, it had been late at night, and Jackie had just let her thoughts get away from her. At least, that was what she reasoned, as she got ready for the day. Sure, these were her friends, but she wasn’t getting out there with bedhead, and her pyjamas. She had standards, thank you very much. As she finished getting ready, Jackie decided to head downstairs in the tiny house. She might still not be a good cook, but toast she could at least handle.

“Jackie, can I talk to you for a second?” Jackie twisted, as she’d gotten into the hallway, seeing Michael standing in the doorway to Betsy and Will’s room. Jackie frowned, Michael looked almost fidgety. Like when he’d had too much sugar and tried to spray her grandmother with the garden hose, or something like that. Except Michael didn’t look giddy, like he had before he’d sprayed Jackie’s grandmother with the hose, but more nervous.

“Michael?” she said with a confused look on her face. He pulled her towards the kids’ room. “Michael, come on, what’s up?” Jackie repeated, as he closed the door behind them.

“Had to close the door first, sound carries,” Michael said, in what still to Jackie at least seemed like an overly serious tone. It was never a good thing, when Michael was being overly serious. He bent down, and seemed to receive something from behind a chest of drawers. Jackie wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing, until he pulled out what looked like a ring box.

“Michael, is that what I think it is?” Jackie asked, wrestling the box out of his hand. She opened it. In it was a silver band ring with 3 small diamonds placed next to each other. Jackie stared at it, Michael had actually done it. He had bought Brooke a ring, and a shiny one too. Had this been before Jackie’s engagement to John, she might have made a thing out of the fact that Michael had gotten her a balloon, instead of something shiny. But now, Jackie was just happy, happy for her friends, excited that they got to have this. Mostly anyway, the balloon was still kind of a low blow. “And it’s so shiny.”

“Yeah,” Michael said with a proud smirk. He looked down at the ring. “I’m going to ask her to marry me tonight, at dinner.”

“Really, with all of us there?” Jackie asked. Jackie wasn’t too sure, that it would be her ideal idea for a proposal. But granted, her dream of a proposal had involved a carriage pulled by white horses at one point, and Jackie could imagine Brooke didn’t have the same idea.

“Yeah, I mean we don’t see Brooke’s mom a whole lot, and my family has only seen Will like three times, since he was born. You guys are like the most important people in my life. Besides you know, Brooke and the kids,” Michael started. That almost made Jackie smile. What had seemed like Michael just doing it, with an audience so he wouldn’t chicken out, was actually kind of sweet. “What? You don’t think it’s a good idea?” Michael asked.

“No! No, no, no,” Jackie hurried to reassure him, holding up her hands. “Michael, I think it’s wonderful. She’s going to love it, I promise.”

“Yeah, I mean who wouldn’t? Getting to be married to a guy this handsome for the rest of your life?” Michael said with pride in his words. Jackie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Besides, you’re like the expert on weddings, Jackie. So, if you think she’s going to love it, then she’s gonna.”

_Expert on weddings_ , Jackie thought to herself. She wasn’t sure, she would agree with Michael on that. Not anymore, anyway. She used to think, it was the end all be all. It was what you were supposed to do, when you loved each other. At least, eventually. But she hadn’t gotten anything out of that with Michael or Steven, and when it came down to it, she couldn’t marry John. But Jackie wasn’t exactly in the mood to have that discussion with Michael of all people. “Look, Brooke makes you happy, right?” Jackie said with a somewhat strained smile.

“Yes,” Michael replied, with a serious look. Something twisted inside Jackie.

“Good, then I don’t think anything else really matters,” Jackie said. She paused for a moment. “Although, I better make sure, Brooke doesn’t get any kind of tacky dresses for her bridesmaids. I do have standards.”

“Damn, Jackie! I think she has to say yes first,” Michael fired back.

* * *

  
Chicago, Illinois

January 1st, 1990, 6:45 PM

Michael Kelso & Brooke Rockwell’s living room.

”Did you really have the sticker on your face, all of last night?” Betsy asked, as the girl sat down next to Jackie. Jackie nodded affirmatively, making Betsy beam proudly. Hyde himself, put the dish he’d carried in from the kitchen, down on the coasters, and took his seat on the opposite side of the table, in between Forman and Fez. It was probably a good thing, he wasn’t sitting anywhere near Jackie, where it would be weird not to talk to Jackie. Because, he really didn’t feel like talking to Jackie. At all. “Good, because that’s what you promised,” Betsy said, overly serious.

Nobody had particularly felt like going home on January the first, so they’d all pretty much agreed on staying for an extra day. But if he hadn’t been driving Forman and Donna, he probably would have ditched them, and gone home. Even though, Hyde kind of felt like a coward for being willing to admit that. Jackie and Hyde had done a lot of talking last night. Too much talking for a New Year’s party, and definitely a lot more talking than they used to do. And then shit had gone wrong, because lately it seemed like that always happened, whenever they said more than two words to each other.

The worst part was, if they could avoid the crap afterwards, Hyde wouldn’t actually mind. But ultimately, the crap always came back around. He looked over at her, she was listening to something Betsy was saying. Her hair fell down over her shoulders, and the blue dress, she was wearing had a sweetheart neckline. She’d lectured him about different dress cuts, while they were dating, and for some reason he hadn’t forgotten about it yet. Probably just because she’d said it a lot, or something.

It was ridiculous, how he still felt the same, when he kissed her. Both times, in August and last night, it had felt easy, comfortable. Jackie was annoying, she was pushy and too stubborn to compromise with anybody. She had pushed him towards getting married, which he absolutely did not want, just because it was how she wanted it to be. On top of that, it had been 10 years. It was probably just because, he hadn’t dated anyone in a long while. The last girl, he’d actually gone out with, was the girl Angie had set him up with a couple of months ago. That had to be it.

Brooke had sat down at the table, her attention on getting some dinner for Will. Kelso was the only one, who hadn’t sat down. He was just kind of awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot in the doorway, between the kitchen and the living room. Once the toddler had gotten a plate full of food, Brooke looked up at Kelso. “Michael, sweetie- What are you doing?”

“Brooke, um- You know, I love you,” Kelso was fiddling around in his back pocket. The expression on Kelso’s face was oddly serious, oddly as in Hyde had seen him look this serious, maybe twice in the whole time, he’d known him. As Kelso pulled out what he’d been looking for, Hyde suddenly got it. It was a ring, pretty flashy too. A far cry from the whole balloon bullshit. Brooke immediately got up from her chair and took a step backwards.

“No. Michael, if you’re doing this as some kind of joke,” Brooke started, and Hyde could tell, she was clearly upset. He couldn’t really blame her for being a little suspicious. “Then the kids and I are going to be out of here, before you can spell aquarium.”

“I can spell aquarium, it´s got like three a’s, that’s not-“ Kelso clearly cringed at himself for seizing on that. He met Brooke’s eyes, and that serious look was back on his face. “Babe, it’s not a joke.”

“It’s not?” Brooke said. There was still disbelief in her voice, but anyone with two working eyes, could see the smile, that was spreading across her face. Hyde might have hated this kind of corny crap, but he was happy, his friend had finally worked up the courage to propose to Brooke. If nothing else, so he’d stop going on about it.

“No, of course not,” Kelso protested. He actually then got down on one knee, in front of where Brooke was standing. Clearly, he was actually going to do this, and not chicken out like had for the last two years. “Look, I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anybody.”

“Burn,” Fez said under his breath, making Jackie send him a withering glare, and Hyde punch his shoulder, hard. Fez pouted.

“Not now, buddy,” Kelso said in Fez’ direction, before turning back to Brooke. There was a happy smile on Kelso’s face, that looked straight out of some ridiculous movie. But Hyde couldn’t find it in himself to make fun of him. “But I love you so much, and I love Betsy and Will. And this right here, the four of us, it makes me really happy, like ridiculously happy. So, I thought, that we should get married, so we could keep on being this happy and be together.”

“You make me really happy too, Michael,” Brooke said quietly, making Kelso, if possible, smile even wider. It looked like his face was practically going to be split into two.

“Sweet!” Kelso exclaimed, clearly getting distracted for a second, but making Betsy laugh. Hyde resisted the urge to roll his eyes for a second. After a moment’s pause, Kelso continued: “Brooke Rockwell, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Brooke said with a grin, and Kelso barely slid the ring on her finger, before he enveloped Brooke in a hug, that sent both of them tumbling to the floor. They were both practically giggling. Finally, they sat back up again. Brooke’s hair was ruffled, not surprising, considering they had practically rolled around on the floor. Kelso’s shirt was askew, the buttons practically dragged under his left arm.

“I’m gonna have a wife!” Kelso said proudly, smiling at Brooke, who was smiling right back. They both seemed to complete ignore the fact, that they had technically all been about to have dinner. Usually, he hated this kind of romantic gooey crap. After all, both times Forman had proposed to Donna, the story behind it had been kind of disgusting. He always believed, you didn’t have to tell a chick constantly, how you felt. She’d know, if you cared. But on the other hand, look where that had gotten him with Jackie. As soon, as the thought entered his head, he pushed it out. He wasn’t hung up on Jackie, no matter, how many times they kept making this mistake.

“Can I be a bridesmaid?” Betsy said, at the exact same time as Jackie did. Something like glee shot up in Betsy’s eyes. “Jinx! You’re not allowed to speak, until someone says your name!”

“Well, I’m going to enjoy this,” Forman said, practically rubbing his hands together in glee. Hyde rolled his eyes at him.

“Of course, you can, sweetie,” Brooke said to her daughter, giving her a small smile. Brooke gave Forman a quick pointed look. “Same goes for you, Jackie,” Brooke continued.

“Spoilsport,” Forman said with a practically Fez-like pout.

“Jinx!” Betsy yelled victoriously, having once again said the same thing, as one of the adults at the table. There was a wide smirk on her face, like Kelso after he’d pulled off a burn. Jackie was practically giggling. “You’re not allowed to speak until someone says your name, or you’re cursed for life and you owe me a soda,” the little girl continued.

“I said, cursed for life and a soda!” Betsy repeated, when Forman opened his mouth to protest. That promptly made Eric shut his trap again.

“She makes a tough deal, man,” Hyde said, patting Forman on the shoulder in faux sympathy. Forman tried for a withering glare somewhat unsuccessfully. Hyde caught Jackie’s eyes across the table. She was practically laughing with her eyes, the way she used to when Kelso did something particularly stupid, or when he said something, she didn’t want to admit was funny. He quickly looked away. They’d both agreed, they had made a mistake, and sure it didn’t hurt to get some of their crap out of the way. But that didn’t mean anything.


	9. Chapter 9

Part 3: It's the wedding weekend of Fez and the gorgeous, if possibly fictional, model Kelly. Maybe Jackie and Hyde finally work stuff out.

San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 11:50 AM

The lobby of The Love And Joy Hotel

The hotel wasn’t exactly Fez’ style. That was the first thing, Hyde noticed, as he arrived in the lobby of _The Love And Joy Hotel._ For one, the name was too obnoxious, even for Fez. It had to be, his possibly imaginary, fiancée that had picked the hotel out. Sure, Fez could get all girly about decorating and stuff, but he was also very particular about things being tacky. Fez and Jackie used to argue about it all the time. Hyde quickly shook that thought from his head, and headed for the front desk, to check in. “My name is Steven Hyde. I’m here for the wedding?” he said to the receptionist’s expecting look.

“The wedding of Kelly Addams and- Oh dear, I don’t believe, I can pronounce that,” the receptionist asked. Hyde just nodded, he figured that would save them some time. How many Kelly Addams-es with a fiancée, who had a ridiculously long name, could there be on one hotel? She turned to find him a keycard. “Here you go, third floor, room 19.”

“This seems like the kind of place the foreigner would pick.” The grouchy voice was followed by Mrs Forman’s characteristic laugh practically echoed across the lobby. Hyde turned to see that both of the elder Formans had arrived. Next to them in the entryway to the hotel was Jackie. Jackie was actually carrying two huge leather duffel bags with a flowery print, no doubt her baggage for the weekend.

“No, Mr Forman, Fez would never pick a place so-“ Jackie started, and Hyde could practically see her eat the word tacky. Probably just in case, Kelly was anywhere nearby. “Special. I’m sure he made sure the ballroom looks nice.”

Hyde smirked, if Jackie couldn’t come up with anything nicer than special, she really had to think this place looked like crap. Not that he didn’t agree with her, but his reasons were probably different than Jackie. He schooled his expression and headed towards the Formans. “You guys need any help?” Hyde asked, as a way of greeting them.

“Oh look, Red, it’s Steven!” Mrs Forman said with a bright smile. Hyde had to admit, he had missed seeing that look on her face. He tried to go to Point Place, to see the Formans as often as he could, but Grooves had been busy. It made it harder to just coast and enjoy working in a record store. Even, if the reason Grooves had been busy was a little bit, because of him. “It has to be a month, since the last time you came for dinner.”

“Business has been busy,” Hyde said, which wasn’t a lie. Mrs Forman frowned. “But I’ll try and make it for next Friday,” he promised.

“No need to hurry, son,” Red added, as if he was worried Hyde would move back in the basement, if he came by for dinner once. Jackie had dropped one of her bags on the floor, clearly anticipating that the conversation with the Formans would last a while. “It’s nice to finally have some peace and quiet.”

“Oh, enough with you. You’ve missed him too,” Mrs Forman said in Red’s direction.

“Let’s go get our room key, Kitty,” Red said, clearly to change the conversation. He sidestepped Mrs Forman to move towards the receptionist desk. “Let’s see if the rooms of this hotel are any better than the lobby.”

“It was nice to see you both again,” Mrs Forman said with a beaming smile in Jackie and Hyde’s direction, before following Red. Jackie shuffled from foot to foot. She had her hands buried in the pockets of her coat. A curl had fallen out of her ponytail, for some reason he almost pushed it behind her ear. Which was dumb, obviously, he wasn’t Forman or anything. Neither of them said anything for a couple of beats.

“Are we good?” Hyde asked, when Jackie picked up her bag. Jackie froze for a moment, before she turned to fully face him. He couldn’t really read the expression on her face.

“What?” Jackie said, clearly doing everything she could to avoid meeting his eyes. Usually he wouldn’t mind, but right now he actually wanted to know if they were good. After what had happened on New Year’s Eve, it would be a long weekend of avoiding Jackie, if they weren’t. “Because you’re just so amazing, that I can’t be alone with you without wanting to make out?” she asked.

“Well,” Hyde began. He rolled his eyes, it wasn’t what he meant. But they could never do anything the easy way. “I have heard you say, ‘take me to bed, baby’ more than once,” he added, making his voice shrill as he repeated the line in question, for added effect.

“Steven!” Jackie squawked, and punched his arm hard. Hyde did notice, that she was blushing profusely. It wasn’t like he was lying though. She bit her lip and looked down at the carpet for a moment. Jackie looked up at him again with a more collected expression. “That was a long time ago,” she continued.

“Yeah,” he said, in a tone he hoped sounded indifferent. He crossed his arms. Jackie was just looking at him, her expression was mostly blank, but she was kind of smiling with her eyes. The same expression, that had appeared every single time, she’d pretended to be annoyed by something he said. He quickly shook the thought from his head, the whole conversation at New Year’s – the fact she and Kelso hadn’t done anything in Chicago, or that he’d never really had to worry about Kelso, as much as he did – didn’t change shit. The whole making out thing definitely didn’t. He just wanted to know, if they were good, so he didn’t have to bother avoiding her all weekend.

“But yes, we’re good Steven,” Jackie said, avoiding his eyes for a moment. She hooked up in the other bag, looking down at it. Jackie shuffled uncomfortably on her feet. There was a pause, before she looked at him again. “You know, it was nice finally talking about the whole- disaster. Maybe it means, we can move on, actually be friends.”

He and Jackie had never been friends, not really. At first, she’d just been Kelso’s annoying chick, who he could burn and get back as good as he got. Then she’d gotten into the habit of crying all over him, whenever Kelso did something extraordinarily moronic, so he had to be nice to her on occasion. He might act tough, but he didn’t really like seeing her cry. Then they’d gotten together, and after that- well, they had never really into the habit of being friends and just hanging out. “That’d be cool,” he just said, aiming for zen, but actually meaning it.

“Yeah,” Jackie said with a similarly zen face. But he could kind of tell there was a smile in her eyes. He shook the thought from his head, he knew Jackie too well and it was annoying. That didn’t mean, it was important. “That’d be cool.”

* * *

  
San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 02:45 PM

Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti’s hotel room

“Jackie!” Donna practically shouted, almost making Jackie jump out of her skin. The redhead was dressed in sweats of all things, but Jackie couldn’t even really focus on that. She tried her best at a glare in the giant’s direction. They’d ended up in Donna and Eric’s room. Jackie wasn’t exactly in the mood to be sitting in a corner and waiting for whatever festivity was starting tonight. “Were you listening to anything, I was saying?”

“No, but to be fair, I never listen to anything you say,” Jackie shot back, making Donna roll her eyes. It was a convincing enough answer. She hadn’t counted on running into Steven, first thing she came to the hotel. Well, technically not first thing, since she’d found the Formans outside, where Mr Forman had complained about how the guy assigned to parking, would probably scratch his car, but besides them.

Jackie hadn’t meant to completely avoid him either, even with everything that had happened, since all of them had met up in Point Place last year. If she was honest with herself, she’d maybe even missed him for a while. Or maybe she just had too much time to think, when she was on hold to some annoying publicist, in order to book a guest for the show. But Jackie hadn’t expected to see him first thing, she’d expected to have time to figure out a plan. Not just see Steven, and have to think quickly.

“Alright fair enough, I guess,” Donna said. Donna sat down on the hotel bed, and she placed a hand on her stomach. Donna seemed to always be sitting down these days. “I don’t know, Jackie. You seem kind of – off. Is work okay?”

“Busy, but it’s always busy. Carol kept whining, that I got to go to San Francisco for the weekend, to a fancy hotel,” Jackie replied, and made sure to make a face. She didn’t really feel particularly bad for Carol. Carol had called her fat, back when Carol had gotten into aerobics two years ago, and Jackie had never forgotten it. But the hotel was really bad. It was so tacky, that even Fez couldn’t possibly have picked it. “Now, that I’ve seen the hotel, I think I’d switch places.”

“And it’s not because you’re suddenly upset Fez is getting married or something like that is it?” Donna asked. Jackie glared at her. Donna held up her hands in surrender. “Alright, fine. It’s not, just checking Jackie!”

“Please! Fez and I only dated for a couple of months ten years ago,” Jackie said with a scoff and sat down next to her very pregnant friend. “It’s not like you’re still dreaming of Randy is it?”

“I can take a hint, Jackie,” Donna said with a small smile. The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Jackie almost wanted to ask Donna about it. But Donna would blabber about to Eric, and then everyone would know, and it would be a whole big mess. “But you are okay, right?” Donna asked, apparently unusually concerned about Jackie’s feelings today.

“You don’t need to pity me, you giant. I’m fine!” Jackie shot back. Jackie dragged her feet over the thick camel coloured carpet. She drew a deep breath. Even, if she asked Donna her opinion, Jackie didn’t have to tell her, what had happened at New Year’s exactly, or after they got back from the water tower almost a year ago. Unlike some of her friends, Jackie could actually keep a secret thank you very much.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t meant, that she wanted to be friends. She had, she absolutely had. They used to have fun together way back when, even with no kissing or anything romantic involved. The small voice in the back of her head, that snuck up on Jackie when she least expected it, had reminded her that she missed that. When there was nothing heavy between them, they had fun. And that was exactly the problem.

There was still the other stuff, the marrying a stripper, fighting constantly, and then eventually just kind of ignoring each other stuff. As much, as Jackie might honestly miss the fun part, the other stuff was still going to be there, in the back of her head. It had felt good, to talk about Chicago, to actually get a chance to explain, but Jackie wasn’t sure, she wanted to hear his explanation for the other stuff. For Sam, or anything else. But for the first time, in a very long time, Jackie didn’t actually want to talk. Then again, Steven had never exactly talked a lot about anything, so why would he start now? Jackie clutched the hideous patchwork comforter in her hands, and then released the thick fabric again. She definitely wasn’t going to start. “Brooke asked, if we wanted to go to the hotel bar tonight? Michael, Steven and Eric are all going to be off embarrassing Fez all night,” Jackie said.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late, again, I'm sorry. My schedule is fairly horrendous at the moment. But I hope you guys enjoy this.

San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 8:40 PM

The Love and Joy Hotel bar

“I bet you can’t stuff this many straws in your mouth,” Michael said, or more likely gargled around the plastic straws, he’d stuffed into his mouth. Eric and Fez gave him a sceptical look. Brooke kind of chuckled, from her seat at their table, clearly more than used to this behaviour from her fiancée. They had all collected together in the bar of the hotel for the night. Donna rose from the bar chair, where she had been sitting next to Jackie and Steven, abandoning the drink on the table.

They had all agreed to meet up in the hotel bar that night. The guys were all planning on dragging Fez around to a couple of bars later. However, neither she, Brooke nor Donna were exactly close friends with Kelly, so none of them had plans for the night. So, they had convinced the boys to stick around the hotel a little longer. Or Brooke had convinced Kelso really, and then Michael had proceeded to convince Fez. Both Steven and Eric had protested, but it was Fez’ wedding after all. So for once, Fez got to be the one making decisions.

“Alright, Kelso if you talk Eric into this, he’s just going to choke on the straws again, like last time and almost swallow one,” Donna protested, clearly feeling the need to rescue her husband. Eric glared at her.

“Donna!” Eric protested. Jackie couldn’t help, but notice the fact that Steven was smirking, out of the corner of her eye. The edge of his mouth kind of ticked up, like he knew Jackie had noticed. She looked away from him again.

“You know, you’d think Forman could fight his own battles by now,” Steven said. He wasn’t looking at her either, and if asked he could probably deny he was talking to her. But Jackie knew better, she knew him better. She looked over at him again. Steven was resting one arm on the bar, the sleeves on the army green jacket he was wearing, was rolled up a little.

“I mean, it _is_ Eric,” Jackie said and took a sip of her drink. She tried for a small smile. She’d kind of missed this, things just being okay. They weren’t saying anything that really mattered. But at least, they were okay, they weren’t burning each other, or ignoring each other. They used to have jokes together, before everything went to crap. “And Donna is more man, than him anyway,” Jackie pointed out.

Steven let out a breath of a laugh. Before of course, most of their jokes would be things, one of them had whispered, when Jackie was sitting on his lap. Jackie didn’t want to repeat that, and she definitely didn’t miss that part. But she missed getting along, which was why she’d said, what she had said that morning. They had to be good, because she kind of missed being actual friends with Steven.

“This is kind of nice, you know,” Steven said quietly, making Jackie turn her head away from the display before them. He was looking at her, wearing his shades, but definitely looking at her. Steven practically had the edge of his glass at his mouth. Jackie wasn’t an idiot, whatever he meant, he was defensive. Luckily, none of their friends appeared to notice, Steven had said anything.

“What? Drinking and making fun of our friends?” Jackie asked. She was trying to make him feel a little bit more comfortable without even realizing it. Jackie sucked her lip in between her teeth and took another sip of her drink. The stool was suddenly very uncomfortable.

“Well, that too. But it wasn’t what I meant,” Steven started. He was trying to avoid looking at her, even though he was wearing his shades. There was a pause, Jackie was tempted to say something, but decided against it. “I meant this- you know? Us, getting along, man. Not yelling at each other or trying to avoid each other, and all that shit,” Steven said.

“Steven,” she said in the same kind of quiet tone. Jackie wasn’t entirely sure, what she was going to say. There was a lot of things, she could. As much as Jackie hated admitting fault, she knew she’d screwed up going to Chicago, and not making Steven understand what had actually happened between her and Michael. But that didn’t change, what had happened after. The thing that Jackie didn’t want to talk about, but at the same time, now that was hanging between them, not repressed or unspoken, she couldn’t really ignore it either. “To be fair, you did a lot of the not getting along,” Jackie continued.

“That’s true,” he replied, looking over at her again. Jackie wasn’t entirely sure, she could read his expression. Normally, she would try to snatch the glasses off his face, but she didn’t want to draw any kind of attention to them. Michael and Donna were arguing on the other side of the hall, the bar was in.

“I mean come on, I know I tried to talk crap to you sometimes. But even forgetting Sam, you practically pushed me into that creek!” Jackie continued. Jackie still remembered being ice cold, and her ankle throbbing and Steven had thought it was funny. There was still a memory of that night, forever burned into Jackie’s brain, of crawling into bed that night, still shivering and finally letting herself cry about it. It had felt like a joke, a great big cosmic joke, the universe had decided to play on her.

“I didn’t- God, you still remember that?” Steven said, clearly cringing, and something flashed across his face, that Jackie could recognize, but it had been a long time, since she’d seen it on Steven’s face. Shame. She kept her eyes on him.

“Steven! I could be all old and wrinkly, and still remember that,” Jackie shot back. Jackie drew a deep breath. There was something stinging at the edge of her eyes, this was the reason, she’d avoided Steven for practically ten years. Because as much as she loved him, he’d hurt her too, made her so angry with him. Used to love him, she reminded herself. She definitely wasn’t still in love with him, no matter what had happened in August or at New Year’s. And god, she shouldn’t even have said anything. Why had Steven had to say something?

It wasn’t like Jackie hadn’t meant it, when she’d said they were good. She had, but she’d also been happy to never bring this up. Steven had always been fine with never bringing shit up. But the one time, she didn’t want Steven to talk about something, he did. Or at least hint at it, making it beyond obvious what he meant, at least to Jackie. “Look, I know I was being a bitch that day, but you didn’t have to call me one. And I got a cold, and twisted my ankle and you thought-“

“I’m sorry,” he cut her off. Jackie furrowed her brow. Steven twisted his hands, before reaching up to take the shades off. He held them in one hand. Jackie stared into his blue eyes. Steven looked like he wanted to look away, but he didn’t. “And not just for that day in the woods, for all of it after- You know. I was pissed off and angry and taking my shit out on you. I shouldn’t have.”

“That’s a lousy excuse, Steven,” Jackie replied, her words watery. She wanted to wipe at her eyes, aware that she was probably crying. But she was scared of breaking eye contact with him and making him retract back into himself.

“It’s the truth, Jackie,” Hyde said. He looked down at the sunglasses in his hands for a moment. “Wish, there was a better reason, but that’s it, man.”

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. Jackie’s hand was shaking, as she closed her fingers around the edge of the bar. Luckily, the hotel bar was so busy, no one appeared to have noticed, what they were doing. Their friends’ voices could be heard in the hallway, away from the hotel bar. They’d continued the straw argument somewhere else without either of them noticing. Steven appeared to be looking in the direction of the sound, but he was tapping his foot. He still hadn’t put the sunglasses back on.

“So, we still good?” Steven said, looking down at his glass. There was definite zen in his words, or an attempt at it anyway. But Jackie wasn’t an idiot, he was clearly nervous. His foot still hadn’t stopped tapping, and he was hunched over slightly. It also helped that he wasn’t wearing the glasses, it made it so much easier to figure out, what he was thinking.

“Honestly?” Jackie asked, looking at him. He stilled, before he nodded once. Jackie drew a deep breath, she already knew what she was going to say, but she almost didn’t want to say it out loud. “Better now.”

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. Steven had said he was sorry. If it had been ten years ago, Jackie would have given anything and everything to hear him say that. It would have meant the world to her. A small voice in the back of her head told her, it still did. But Jackie swiftly ignored that. Steven put his glass down on the bar. “I better go,” he said, avoiding looking at her.

* * *

  
San Francisco, California

March 9th, 1990, 11:46 PM

The Drunken Goose Bar

“This place is so lame, man,” Hyde said, barely managing to speak over the music on the speakers. Not, that they were actually playing anything good. Fez was swaying slightly from side to side in his seat, but that might just be because they were playing _Steely Dan_. Hyde took a swig of his beer, he wasn’t even really that drunk, because all the places they had gone tonight had been crap. Kelso rolled his eyes, or it looked like he tried to roll his eyes anyway.

“What’s gotten into you?” Forman said, slurring slightly over his words. Seemed like everyone else was more drunk than Hyde tonight, which was just depressing. “I haven’t seen you this grumpy, since _Gilligan’s Island_ ended without them getting off the- you know, island thing,” Forman finished off, this time it was Hyde, who rolled his eyes.

“When am I not pissed off, man?” Hyde said, glaring at Forman. Forman didn’t appear to notice, because he didn’t look intimidated at all. Either that, or Hyde had had one too many beers to pull off a good glare.

“No, I know what you mean, Eric-“ Fez added, pausing to grab onto the table, clearly unsteady. Fez plastered a grin on his face, as to reassure the rest of them, that he was fine. “I haven’t seen Hyde look this grumpy, since Lisa dumped him to get that fancy lawyer job in New York.”

“Oh, come on,” Hyde bit back, and took another big swig of his beer. He’d been determined to enjoy this, and enjoy this weekend. But his conversation with Jackie earlier, was making that harder than he liked. Even, if he was the one, who had brought it up. But at least, he had gotten to say he was sorry, so maybe that was something. He pushed the thought down, he didn’t want to think about it again, tonight.

“Yes, I know what you mean, man!” Kelso said, his friend practically yelling into Hyde’s ear. He winced, and resisted the urge to kick his shin or something. “It was even worse, when like Jackie dumped- Man, is this about Jackie?!”

“The hell are you talking about, man?” Hyde said, and punched Kelso in the shoulder. Apparently, being wasted made Kelso smarter. Who would have thought, the day would come? He scowled, and took another sip of his beer. “Jackie and I broke up ten years ago, because of you, man. That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Man, I told you-“ Kelso started, and looked down at the table for a moment. Kelso drank from his beer. “It like makes total sense. _Gilligan_ has been cancelled for years, and Lisa is not even here, man. So, like it has to be Jackie, guys!” Kelso concluded with a proud grin. “Man, you’re still in love with Jackie!”

“I wasn’t pissed off, but all three of you,” Hyde paused and gestured to the other three sitting at the table. None of them looked particularly bothered. He kept his face zen, even if you couldn’t really see much at the bar. The lights were mostly dim. “Are doing a real good job of making me. Who wants more drinks?” he asked, if nothing else to have an excuse to leave the table. They’d probably have forgotten what they were talking about, when he came back.

“Whatever you say, you’re the one who wants to for-for-fornicate with the devil,” Forman said, clearly struggling with long words, as Hyde got up. Hyde rolled his eyes, when he had his back to Forman. Maybe Fez wouldn’t get drunk enough, for them to get away with putting a dress on him tonight. Out of his three friends, Fez seemed to be the least out of it. But Hyde was definitely going to get Forman wasted enough to wake up in _interesting_ attire tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and on time for a change. I really hope you guys enjoy this.

San Francisco, California

March 10th, 1990, 9:22 PM

The ballroom of The Love And Joy Hotel

“Can I have a Rum and Coke?” Jackie asked the bartender, who gave her a sleazy smile. She just rolled her eyes. The rehearsal dinner had been kind of a strained thing so far. Kelly and Fez had barely gotten any points in the version of The Newly Wed Game, that some of Kelly’s friends had made. According to Fez, they’d just picked bad trivia. If Jackie had been 16 years old, an idealist and practically just waiting to get proposed to, she might have taken it as a bad omen of some kind. Fortunately, she was just 29 and only here for Fez’ sake. As well as the opportunity to see her old friends again.

“You know the house we have in the Hamptons is absolutely wonderful. Especially now, that the neighbours finally fired that annoying maid they hired.” Jackie overheard, as she made her way from the bar to her seat. The rehearsal dinner had loosened up a little bit, and there were even a few people dancing. But Jackie still had to get Donna to spill, what her and Eric were naming their baby. Apparently, they had wanted to keep it a secret, but Jackie just really wanted to know. And as much as Eric couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, he probably wouldn’t tell Jackie. “She kept whining about the long hours to our gardener.”

The loud guy in question was sitting next to Steven. If Jackie remembered right, the guy was related to Kelly somehow. Jackie watched them for a second. Steven rolled his eyes at What’s His Face, but it barely seemed to register with him. “And thank god, we don’t have any of those youth gangs who spray paint everything,” What’s His Face blabbered on, and Steven looked incredibly close to sucker punching the guy.

Jackie decided that needling Donna to find out the baby’s name could wait until later, and she took a sharp turn towards the table, where Steven was sitting. She put her hand on his shoulder, making him jump slightly. Jackie smiled a wide and phony smile, which was mostly for the benefit of What’s His Face. Maybe, it would get him to leave Steven alone and avoid a black eye. And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to dance around with Steven until What’s His Face had found someone else, who’d find him less annoying. Friends could dance with each other. “Steven, don’t you want to dance with me?” she said, going for as sugary sweet as possible. “I’ve missed -you all night, darling,” okay, so maybe friends didn’t call each other darling, but that was for the benefit of What’s His Face.

“Oh, I would love to, _doll_ ,” Steven said, clearly mocking her, even if the nickname was one, he’d called her once upon a time. But from the looks of it, he also got, that she was just trying to save his ass, or more likely trying to save What’s His Face’s ass. She grabbed his hand and moved them towards the dance floor. What’s His Face turned his attention to another victim in a satin suit, who sat at Steven’s table. She let her phony smile fade, when Steven put his hands on her shoulders. She laced her fingers together behind his neck. “I hate dancing,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, I know,” Jackie started in the same kind of quiet tone, that was barely audible thanks to the music. She gave him a small smile, that was more real. She had never known why, Steven was a good dancer after all. Even, if she hadn’t noticed that one time, she dragged them to the disco in Kenosha, she had made him dance with her enough times since to know. “But it was the first thing, I thought of, and I figured Fez wouldn’t appreciate you bludgeoning one of his wedding guests to death.”

“I wouldn’t have bludgeoned him,” Steven defended himself, making them sway slightly. He looked nice tonight, but that was more about him just having a good suit, than anything else. It had to be. It just framed him nicely, Jackie could appreciate a good suit. “Punched him a couple of times, sure. But not bludgeoned him.”

“Whatever you say, _darling_ ,” Jackie replied, highly enjoying the face, he made at her.

“You can quit that, we’re out of earshot,” Steven replied. His fingers spread out on her shoulder, running across the fabric of her dress. His face betrayed him a little, the edge of his mouth was tugging upwards slightly.

“Oh, you never know,” Jackie replied, but didn’t say anything else. The song was slow, not quite a romantic slow dance, but not far off. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fez and Kelly dancing. Steven wasn’t holding her as close, as he used to, for obvious reasons. Not that she wanted him to either, they were trying to put the whole mess of the water tower and New Year’s behind them after all. When she had told him, she wanted to be friends, she’d meant it. Jackie wasn’t sure, why she kept having to remind herself of that.

She’d always enjoyed dancing with him. Michael couldn’t really dance, and for Fez it was always more about the fun of dancing, than it was about her. John argued he didn’t have the time or the energy to go dancing, and Jackie had tried telling herself, it didn’t really matter. With Steven, it had always sort of felt right. The warmth of his hand on her lower back, the fact that he always seemed to concentrate completely on her, being pressed up against him. It was just nice.

“So- um, did you guys manage to get Fez in a dress last night?” Jackie asked, when neither of them said anything for a long moment. They should probably talk, that would make this less weird. She was looking over Steven’s shoulder, watching What’s His Face. It seemed easier, looking at Steven’s face too much, would just seem too much like last time, they were dancing together.

“No actually, Fez has gotten better at handling beer. Forman might have woken up with big Red’s red lipstick on though,” Steven replied. Jackie let out a snort of a laugh. “And the pink stuff on his cheeks, and the eyelash thing.”

“Might as well, red goes terribly with her hair. Way too much red,” Jackie replied, with a dismissive hand. Steven smirked. Jackie wasn’t sure, when she’d started looking at Steven again. The edges of her mouth tugged upwards slightly, and something in her chest tightened. She looked away to What’s His Face instead.

“Didn’t suck,” Steven said a moment later, as the song came to an end. What’s His Face seemed enthralled in his other conversation, so they probably didn’t have to keep doing this. Weirdly, Jackie almost didn’t want to stop.

“What?” Jackie asked, the question making her look at him again.

“The dancing,” Steven continued, a look on his face that Jackie couldn’t decipher. “A lot less crap, than I remember it being.”

“You’re such a liar,” Jackie retorted with a breathy laugh, letting go of him. After all, she still had Donna to pester about the baby’s name. She didn’t look back at Steven, she wasn’t sure, what she’d do or say, if she did.

* * *

  
San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 00:37 AM

The Love And Joy Hotel

Technically, Hyde had just meant to go back to his hotel room. It had been a long, very boring night, and he really just wanted to pass out in his bed, and get up in time to not be too late for the wedding. Dancing with Jackie, Kelly’s uniquely annoying square cousin Fred, he’d been stuck with all night, because Kelly had made the seating plan not Fez, the logical thing would be just to pass out in his bed with a beer. He paused for a moment. The hotel had small green areas, like someone had tried to convince them, they were actually on some romantic farm, rather than a hotel in the middle of San Francisco, with cars razing by on the highway outside. It was annoying him.

Jackie was sitting on a bench in such a green area, her knees dragged up under her chin. She looked like she’d spaced out, and probably hadn’t even noticed he was there. If he wanted to, he could still go back to his hotel room, and Jackie wouldn’t get mad that he ignored her or some shit. Not that he was expecting her to get mad or anything, not anymore at least. Even, if it were to annoy her, that wasn’t really his problem. Instead, he pushed the glass door open. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hi,” Jackie replied, turning her head to look at him. He knew, the two of them alone wasn’t anything good at the moment, after what had happened after the water tower, and at New Year’s but right now, he didn’t actually care too much. “So- That’s Kelly,” she said, gesturing towards the hotel.

“God, she’s a moron. I thought Kelso was bad, but man, he might actually have some serious competition,” Hyde said, as he sat down next to Jackie.

“Yeah, you’re not wrong,” Jackie said, smiling to herself. Something inflated in his chest. She looked gorgeous. She’d loosened her hair, since last time he’d seen her, and now it was falling over her shoulders. Her eyes were sort of shining in the dull light. She always looked fucking gorgeous, even when she’d just been Kelso’s annoying girlfriend, or back when he’d been dragging Sam around. Maybe he was drunk enough to let himself admit that. “But hey, whatever makes Fez happy, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice sounded a lot smaller than he had expected it to do. She met his eyes. He had been happy for a while with Jackie around. Not that, that mattered anymore. He wasn’t even sure, why he was thinking about it at all. “Whatever makes Fez happy.”

He’d moved towards her, before he even had a chance to realize it. Like he wasn’t even thinking about it. Maybe, it wasn’t just the same stupid mistake, they kept making over and over again. He knew, he’d said, he wanted to be friends with her, and he had meant it for the most part. It just so happened, he also wanted to kiss her. Everything else in his head whited out, and he just wanted to kiss her. Jackie angled her head towards him. But then a hand against his chest pushed him away, and she got to her feet. “We can’t keep doing this!” Jackie said, shaking her head. “Steven, we agreed this was a mistake.”

“What, if it’s not,” Hyde heard himself say, before he knew what he was saying.

“What?” Jackie said in disbelief. She was glaring at him.

“Man- Jackie, we keep doing this. You know, what if it’s a sign or something?” Hyde replied. His thoughts were evaporating, and none of it made sense. He’d gotten himself into one of those situations, he absolutely hated, and with his back against the wall, he had no idea how to get out. So apparently, nothing had changed in the last ten years.

“Steven- you don’t- you don’t believe in signs,” Jackie fired back, clearly frustrated. She didn’t move though, she just stood where she stood, still glaring at him.

“You just wanna keep acting like, this is not a thing?” Hyde heard himself asking, as if he was outside his own body, and had no control over what he was saying. “Not an expert, but I don’t think this is what people who went out in high school are supposed to be doing, ten years later.”

“People make mistakes,” Jackie bit back, and he hated that, that stung. But it still felt like, he was watching this from afar. Everything Jackie had happened more than 10 years ago, he had gotten used to not thinking about it, pushing it away from him. But it was also happening right now, mostly because he was screwing it up – again.

“ _Three_ times, Jackie,” he replied, because apparently he could still practically argue with Jackie in his sleep.

“Just tell me one reason then,” Jackie said stubbornly, crossing her arms. Her expression hardened, like she was trying to look stubborn. “Just give me _one_ reason, why it’s not a mistake, Steven.”

He had never been good at that, she should know that. This was how they’d always gotten into trouble before. He wished, he could say something, didn’t realize how much he actually wanted to say something to convince her, until just now. There was no way in hell, he could explain to her why he’d kissed her at New Year’s, or that he’d actually genuinely enjoyed dancing with her earlier, or anything like that. Even if he could, it would be pointless, because she needed to be convinced. Whatever Hyde thought, Jackie thought it was a mistake. He took a long breath, and turned towards the sliding door. “Forget, I said anything,” he said without looking at her.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Jackie said quietly, before the door slid shut, her tone unreadable, and he didn’t turn around to see the look on her face. If he had needed to pass out before, he definitely needed to, now.


	12. Chapter 12

San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 1:45 AM

The Love and Joy Hotel

The hotel room door slid shut behind Hyde, and he let himself dump down on the double bed. The room was pitch black, but he didn’t bother to get up and turn the lights on. He just laid there, immovable in the darkness. He had screwed it up again, blown it up. At this point, he should have probably seen it coming. The way, she’d looked at him. _“Just give me one reason.”_ And his mind had blanked, he hadn’t even known why he had said that in the first place.

They were a mistake, she was right. How many times had they screwed this up? Twice? Three times?  Maybe even four times, if he was willing to count Veteran’s day? He took a swig of the whiskey bottle, he’d gotten in the bar on his way back here. They had screwed up over and over, and wasn’t it time to just put an end to it?

On the other hand, Hyde knew exactly why he’d said it. Because of the way, he could still clearly picture the bright smile on her face, whenever he’d paid close enough attention to her cheerleading gossip to know, the name of the slut she was mad at. The way, it had felt dancing with her at the Valentine’s dance, knowing she loved him. That she actually really loved him. Her lazy smiles in the morning, when she woke up in the basement, just wearing his Zeppelin t-shirt. The way, it had felt kissing her the first time, that summer, after she, his chick, took him back.

Hyde had never been able to admit it, but he’d been happy back then. It was the whole reason, why he hadn’t understood why Jackie couldn’t just deal and be happy. He had thought, he had dealt with that a long time ago, moved on really, sometime between Jackie starting to go out with Fez and Sam wanting him to sign some legal documents years after, she’d ditched Point Place. Sure, he’d been happy with Jackie, but he’d moved on. It wasn’t like he needed Jackie for that.

Except, it had been really cool to walk home with Jackie that night, last year, and actually talk. No hostility or all that crap, it had been almost like it used to. They’d gotten so good at avoiding each other, he’d almost forgotten how nice, it was to hang around her. Forgotten that she was funny, sharp as hell. Forgotten how gorgeous she was, forgotten what it felt like to want to kiss her. Forgotten how it felt like to kiss her. He took another swig at the whiskey bottle, and coughed. Hyde swallowed hard.

It didn’t matter, what he thought about this. He put the bottle down on the bedside table. He had to remember that, he thought to himself, as he flopped down on the bed. All of that, whatever was going on inside his head, didn’t mean shit. Because Jackie thought, it was a mistake. Jackie didn’t think of that same crap he did, Jackie needed convincing, Jackie needed a reason. So none of it meant shit. Even, if he had come up with a reason.

* * *

  
San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 02:02 AM

A hotel hallway at The Love and Joy Hotel

“So,” Jackie said, as they slid down on the floor next to each other. The hallway was basically deserted, which was probably for the best. Fez didn’t seem like he was in a partying mood right now. Maybe he was just tired, or nervous. Getting married tomorrow had to be terrifying. His shirt was untucked, and his butterfly untied. He had to have left the jacket at the restaurant or in his room. Jackie kind of wanted to talk to him about Steven, but she was intending to keep her mouth shut, not bring up any of that stuff. And Fez shouldn’t have to worry about anything, besides his wedding. Not that there was anything to worry about with her and Steven. “You’re getting married tomorrow, Fezzie.”

“Why did you leave John, the fancy lawyer?” Fez asked. Jackie gave him a curious look. That was probably one of the last questions, she’d expected him to ask, especially right after his rehearsal dinner for his wedding. Maybe, he was worried Kelly would back out or something. “I thought you said the reason, you and Kelso could never have gotten married, was because he was too stupid to be a lawyer. You’re not still hung up on me, are you Goddess?” he continued, more teasing than anything else.

“God, Fez no. Sometimes people just change their mind,” Jackie replied, on the verge of laughter. Fez gave her a doubting look, he wasn’t buying it. She sighed heavily. She might as well tell Fez, maybe it would help her actually articulate how she felt. “I mean, yes. John was a good lawyer, rich, paid for everything and he was nice to me. Even though, he thought my job was dumb and he apparently complained to Brooke about Betsy being annoying at Eric and Donna’s wedding, I thought I could live with that, you know? But sometimes, you just realize, you want something else, than what you think, you want.”

“Like when you go to get one kind of candy, but you end up buying something else when you’re in the store, because it’s better?” Fez asked, and Jackie resisted the urge to laugh. Of course, that was the analogy, Fez would immediately go to.

“Yeah, if you want to look at it that way. I don’t know. I used to think, when you were happy together, you just got married, and then you were happy together for the rest of your life,” Jackie said. Fez looked to be deep in thought, which was odd, because Fez had never liked John that much. “And then, I realized, we weren’t even happy together. He never really made me laugh, and I never made him laugh. Sure, he was a lawyer, but all he ever talked about was his job, never interesting stuff.”

“Alright,” Fez said, suddenly sounding resolved. Jackie gave him a confused look. She had no idea, where he was going with this. “You’ve convinced me. I’m not going to marry Kelly.”

“What the- what? What are you talking about, Fez?” she said. “That was not what you asked about at all. Are you sure? Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious, Goddess. I’m not going to marry Kelly,” Fez repeated, sounding even more resolved, if that was possible. God, she was beyond done with tonight. First, Steven was acting weird, and now Fez was being even weirder. If she hadn’t been in the middle of the conversation, she seemed to be having with Fez, she would have just gone to sleep. This was too much to handle at this time of night. “Sometimes, you don’t want the things, you think you want. Besides why do you care, you’ve ditched your wedding before?”

“Yes, _three months before_ , Fezzie. Not the night before. Although, we couldn’t get our deposit back- That’s not the point. You have to think about this, Fez,” Jackie said. She really didn’t want Fez to ruin his chance to be happy. Sure, none of the rest of them got exactly why Fez wanted to marry Kelly, but he seemed to like her, and there had to be a reason, he’d asked her to begin with.

“But I have thought about this, Jackie,” Fez said, and she could tell, he actually meant it. Just like he’d clearly meant it, when he had told her, he didn’t think Jackie and him could be happy together. “I like Kelly, and she is really pretty. But she is also always on her job, and I don’t see her for that long. And I ran into Caroline, the last time I was visiting you in Los Angeles-“

“Wait a second, you got together with Caroline?” Jackie interjected, more than prepared to punch him. Sure, Kelly was dumber than Michael, Steven was right about that, and she seemed to think, she was prettier than Jackie, but if Fez had cheated on her, Jackie didn’t care about that. She didn’t even care that Fez was one of her good friends, she would gladly punch him.

“No! Of course, not,” Fez said, clearly offended, and Jackie didn’t doubt him. Fez might have spent a considerable amount of his time in Point Place chasing after girls, but he didn’t cheat on anyone. “We just talked some more, and she really is doing better, and I think I get it a little more now. We’re friends, but I just think that maybe-“

“You just think, that maybe things aren’t entirely done between you,” Jackie said with a deep sigh. How was this conversation even reminding her of Steven, when he couldn’t even come up with a good reason for why them ending up kissing every time, they saw each other lately might not be a mistake. Whatever, she was going to stop thinking about Steven. There were clearly more important problems at hand. Jackie could think about Steven later, if it wasn’t for the fact that she absolutely wasn’t going to think about Steven at all. Fez nodded. “But why, Fez?”

“I’m not just going to get together with Caroline,” Fez said. “But the biggest problem, we used to have, was that she- you know didn’t get any help. And now she is doing better, and I really liked her, and maybe we wouldn’t have broken up, if she hadn’t yelled at you and Donna like that.”

“Well, I think you should go talk to Kelly,” Jackie said. It wasn’t her finest moment, doing what she could to set Caroline off, but she and Donna had thought, they were doing Fez a favour. Maybe they should have just let Fez figure it out in his own time. Fez moved to get up. “But maybe don’t put that much emphasis on Caroline. That’s probably going to make it worse. And don’t say you are in love with me or Donna either to get out of it.”

“Duly noted. I’ll go talk to Kelly,” Fez replied, his shoulders slumped. Jackie could understand why. As much as he might genuinely like Caroline, this probably wasn’t a conversation, he wanted to have. He started to walk towards the elevator.

“Oh, and Fez?” Jackie said, making him stop in his tracks. He turned towards her. There was something thick in Jackie’s throat, and she didn’t say anything for a moment. “Call Caroline tomorrow. If you really think, she’s what you want, it deserves a fair shot.”

“I’ll do that,” Fez said, and now he was actually smiling. Something tugged inside Jackie’s chest. “What about you, Goddess? Have you found someone, you thought wasn’t right but actually was?”

“No,” Jackie said with a shake of her head, and a small smile. Maybe that wasn’t the entire truth, but it was close enough. Maybe Steven genuinely didn’t think all their recent making out was a mistake, but neither he nor she could come up with a reason why, it wasn’t. Besides, even if it wasn’t a mistake, that was no guarantee. They could mess up again. Maybe Steven didn’t even want that, she wasn’t even sure if she wanted that. Jackie clenched her fists, she didn’t want to think about Steven, until she had gotten this Fez problem out of the world.

“Yes, you do,” Fez said with a knowing smile. “It’s Hyde.”

“What? Fez, it’s not Steven!” Jackie said, because he’d hit a lot closer to home, than she had expected him to do. Not that Steven actually was that person for her. He couldn’t be, if they couldn’t even come up with a reason why, it wasn’t a mistake. That was what Jackie had said to Steven, and it was what she had practically convinced herself of, by the time she found Fez in the hallway.

“What? It’s not?” Fez asked. She shook her head. He seemed to buy that. Jackie wasn’t sure how, it didn’t even sound convincing to her. “Damn, and here I thought, I had you all figured out, Goddess.”

“Well, I am a woman of mystery,” she replied with a smile, as Fez turned to head for the elevators again. The smile faltered from her face, as soon as Fez had turned his back on her. The words didn’t sit entirely right in her mouth. Maybe Steven was right, maybe it wasn’t a mistake. But Jackie could only come up with one reason why, because it still felt the same. It still felt like she was 18, and way too in love with Steven. Kissing him at New Year’s had reminded her of when, they were doing good, and she would think to herself, that she could get used to that. That she could do that forever. All of that was ridiculous, because way too much had happened since then. She got up from where, she had been sitting on the floor. It didn’t make sense, that she would feel like she was way too in love with- Jackie’s breath caught in her throat.

“God damn it!” Jackie said, once Fez had disappeared. You didn’t feel like you were way too in love with someone, if you weren’t, did you? Jackie looked down on her hands, they were shaking. She balled them up into fists. She needed to talk to Steven, actually properly talk to Steven.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Penultimate chapter time, meaning we're nearly there. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this, even half as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I haven't written a fic this long in years, and it's been lots of fun to do it again. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter as well.

San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 11:06 AM

The Love And Joy Hotel

The knocking on the door kept on going. It had gone on for at least 5 minutes, and at this point it was really starting to get on his nerve. Hyde had hoped, he could just ignore it, but whatever hotel staff it was, was clearly very insistent. That was annoying. Hyde glanced at the alarm clock on the table, he wasn’t late yet. The staff clearly hated him, if they wanted to keep knocking for that long. He groaned, as he got up. “Yeah, yeah, I’m not even late,” he said, not sure if whoever was on the other side, could even hear him.

Once Hyde opened the door, it wasn’t actually hotel staff on the other side, or even Kelly’s annoying cousin Fred, back to ramble more about the Hamptons. It was Donna. 8 months pregnant, and dressed in sweats, the latter was weird, considering they had to be at the damn chapel in about an hour. “Hey there big Red, literally,” Hyde said, earning him a punch in the shoulder. “Alright, guess I deserved that. What are you even doing here, shouldn’t you be doing Kelly’s hair or some shit?”

“Well, I’m guessing since it looks like you slept in your suit and just woke up, you don’t know,” Donna started. Hyde narrowed his eyes. He didn’t know what the hell, she was talking about. Hyde stepped back, and let her into his room. “Fez and Kelly aren’t getting married. He called it off last night, after the rehearsal dinner.”

“Wait what?” Hyde replied. Surely, Fez had to be joking, or panicking, or something. That was the only logical explanation. Surely, he wasn’t dumb enough to actually run out on his own wedding, like Forman had done the first time. Fez might agree with Kelso a lot of the time, but surely he wasn’t that much of a moron. “Where the hell is Fez?”

“He took off, after I finished talking to him. Apparently, Kelly’s brother is a professional quarterback, and Fez didn’t want to repeat history,” Donna said. He couldn’t exactly say, he blamed Fez for that. Better safe than sorry and all that shit. Even if Hyde still had no idea, what the hell Fez was doing. “Fez just wanted to tell one of us before he took off, and he couldn’t wake Eric up, because I may have made him go look for cookies at 4 AM- Whatever.”

“What the hell happened? He was all ready to marry the chick?” Hyde said, recalling Fez’ bachelor party two days ago, where Fez had been rambling about what candy, Kelly’s babies would be like, and if Forman thought Kelly would look hot in her wedding dress. It was weird, but Fez had been very drunk at that party. Even if Forman had ended up a lot more drunk, and with Big Red’s makeup on. Donna shrugged.

“He said, he’d been thinking about it for a while. But Jackie said something last night, that convinced him or something,” Donna said, suppressing a yawn. Forman might have been the one, who had to go get cookies, but Donna clearly hadn’t slept much either. “I don’t know what he meant by that.”

“They probably eloped to Vegas or some shit,” Hyde said, almost under his breath. Donna stared at him. He didn’t necessarily like thinking the worst of Jackie, but it right now, it seemed to be the easiest way out. “You know Jackie likes a big romantic gesture, and Fez was probably lured away with the promise of doing it.”

“Wait- How the hell, did you leap to that conclusion?” Donna asked, and crossed her arms. She shifted a little from foot to foot. “Are you high or something?”

“Man, I wish,” he grumbled and sat down on his bed. Dancing with Jackie last night, almost kissing her again, her essentially rejecting him, it was all muddled up in his head. He felt like he could barely think straight. Although, that might be related to the beers, he’d had last night. That didn’t stop him from really wanting to go back to sleep though.

“Hold on a minute, you’re not still-“ Donna started, like a thought was forming in her head. A grin was tugging at the edge of her mouth. He glared at her, but the grin only got more smug. “Why do you care so much, what Jackie is or isn’t doing?”

“Maybe, I just don’t want her to ruin one of my best friends’ wedding? You think of that?” he bit back. There was a definite smirk on her face now, and she was clearly trying not to say, whatever the hell, it was she was thinking.

“If you say so, Hyde,” Donna said, clearly still thinking _something_. But pregnant ladies got weird ideas, didn’t they? That had to be why, she was thinking that. Even if he knew, in the back of his head, that she wasn’t necessarily that far off base, he wasn’t about to admit it. He got shaken out of his thoughts by another door knock, this one even more insistent than the last one. “Might be someone, who wants to tell us the wedding’s off,” Donna said.

“Steven, I need to talk-“ Jackie started, as soon as the door opened.

“I knew it!” Donna practically shouted with a fist pump, before Hyde could even process the fact, that Jackie had actually shown up. Jackie didn’t say anything else, practically looking like she hadn’t even noticed Donna.

“Could we maybe get some privacy, big Red?” Hyde said in Donna’s general direction. Donna’s smile was practically impossible smug, and he just glared at her. She finally decided to take a hike, and left the room, closing the door behind her. Neither of them said anything for a moment. Jackie shuffled a little from foot to foot. He had his hands buried in his pockets. “Shouldn’t you be half way to Vegas with Fez by now?”

“Oh, for god’s sake, Steven!” Jackie exclaimed. “Fez and I were together for barely a month! What the hell, gave you that idea?”

“Whatever. Donna said, Fez said he broke off the wedding because of you,” he said without looking at her. But he figured there was no point in trying to hide the reason why. It wasn’t like it was going to change anything anyway.

“Because of something _I said_ , not because of me. He broke it off because of Caroline,” Jackie fired back. “And he’d been thinking about it for a while anyway, so you can’t blame me, you jerk!”

“Crazy Caroline?” he asked with what was probably a raised eyebrow. Jackie glared at him. But she was serious, he wasn’t a complete dumbass, and he knew Jackie. There was a long pause again, he wasn’t sure if Jackie was waiting for him to say something or not. Fez back together with Caroline, that was certainly- something. “Huh.”

“Look, Steven I- I came here because I came up with a reason,” Jackie said, considerably quieter than before. He was pretty sure, he gave her a confused look. She took a step closer to him, but there was still a considerable distance between them. He could hear his pulse quicken, pumping in his ears. Whatever, Jackie was going to say, she didn’t seem sure how to do it.

“You made me happy, Jackie,” he said, his throat tight. It was what, he should have said last night, and he knew it. He had no idea, what Jackie was going to say, but he should say it. Jackie was just staring at him. Hyde wasn’t an idiot, he knew she was going to need more than that.

* * *

“Look man,” Steven continued, like the words could barely come out of his mouth. Jackie’s entire body was quivering, but she remained nailed to the ground. She hadn’t expected Steven to say anything. “Wasn’t used to- you know, having a girlfriend. But you got me, most of the way anyway. And- and hanging out with you was always fun, even if you were yapping my ear off about some of the cheerleader crap- I missed you, when you weren’t around the basement. Started worrying I was turning into Forman, that’s how much I missed you.”

“Steven-“ Jackie started, her voice barely audible, not even entirely sure what she wanted to say. He’d said more to tell her, his actual feelings than he had about her, in such a long time. Maybe ever, really. Jackie was almost worried, she was going to wake up, and having this all be one big nightmare or something like that.

“And I, um I didn’t have that with any other chick. Just you,” Steven continued. He averted his eyes for a moment, before looking at her again. Something inflated in her chest, and Jackie’s breath caught in her throat. “You know, if you wanted a reason, man.”

“Steven, I’m still in love with you,” Jackie said, finally working up the courage to say what she’d actually come here to say. Steven just stared at her, his mouth actually hanging slightly open. But there was a look in his eyes, one that Jackie hadn’t seen in so long, but instantly recognized. Everything was buzzing underneath her skin. “And it terrifies me, because what if we screw this up again? I can’t screw it up again, Steven.”

“We won’t screw it up again,” Steven said. Jackie wasn’t sure how the hell, he could possibly know that. She must have given him a look, because he reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. Jackie found herself leaning into his hand. His hands were warm, they’d always been warm.

“How do you know that?” Jackie said quietly. His thumb stroked across her cheek, and Jackie’s eyes fluttered shut. “You never know anything, how do you suddenly _know_?”

“Come on, Jackie, we might have screwed a lot of crap up, but we’re not that dumb. Neither of us ever glued ourselves to the Formans’ fridge,” Hyde said, making her let out a breath of a laugh. She opened her eyes again, and met his blue eyes. Something in her guts made a somersault, and Jackie smiled brightly. “We’ll be fine,” Steven said, and there was something about that, that reassured her.

Jackie curled a hand behind his head, immediately burying her fingers in his hair and pushed herself up to press her mouth against his. Steven responded immediately, opening his mouth to meet her. Everything was tingling underneath Jackie’s skin, and Steven’s other arm wrapped around her to pull her closer towards him. His teeth graced her lip, and Jackie let out a whine. God, she’d missed this, she had missed this ridiculously much. Jackie wasn’t sure how you could miss kissing someone so much.

It felt good, felt amazing, to just be able to do this. She didn’t have to worry about this being a bad idea, or about them making a mistake, she could just kiss Steven, because wanted to. Jackie really really wanted to. She backed him towards the still made hotel bed, and Steven sat down on the edge. In the back of her head, she thought she could hear something that sounded a little bit like knocking. She made a quick decision and swung a leg on each side of his. “Fuck-“ Steven said, breathing heavily, as both of them caught their breath. Heat rushed through her. “Fuck, you’re amazing.”

“Steven,” she said, her fingers still running through his curls. She took a deep breath, her chest heaving. He was smiling with his eyes, a look Jackie could recognize from a long time ago. A look that had usually been directed at her. “We still need to talk,” she said softly.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, a hand stroking up and down her arm. Jackie’s smile grew wider, if that was even humanly possible.

“That’s a first,” she said with a breathy laugh. The hand that isn’t on her arm brushed a curl behind her ear, and something about that made heat in Jackie’s chest flare up. She almost leant forward to kiss him again.

“Gotta start somewhere, grasshopper,” Steven fired back, making her grin. She scooted closer to him, making him let out a small noise. Jackie angled her head, and pressed her lips against his mouth. She didn’t deepen her kiss, and neither did Steven, they just stayed together for a long moment. There’s a knocking on the door, but Jackie blocks out the sound of that. Both of his hands are cupping her face now, and Jackie could honestly stay like this. Just stay like this, for as long as either of them liked. She didn’t need anything else.

This time the knocking is louder, more insistent, and finally they pull apart, if nothing else to catch their breath. But the knocking doesn’t stop, and finally with an eyeroll, Jackie slides off his lap, and heads for the door. However, the person on the other side of the door, was probably not the one, Jackie had expected to see, if anyone had asked her about it later.

“I- I think my water just broke,” Donna said with a heavy breath, leaning against the door frame, her face contorting in a grimace.

“But- wait what now?” Steven started, and Jackie thought back to their conversation. Donna had said, it was 38 weeks, so maybe it did kind of make sense.

“Steven, go get Eric,” Jackie said, turning towards him, trying to rationalize the whole thing. Donna hadn’t expected to give birth before 39 or 40 weeks, but she wasn’t a complete idiot, so she had to have brought something. Steven still looked entirely caught off guard. Jackie gave him a more pointed glare, that had always seemed to do the trick way back when. “ _Now_ , Steven.”

“Right,” Steven said, moving past them but not before brushing his fingers against the back of Jackie’s hand. It lasted a moment too long to not be deliberate, and the thought made Jackie’s toes curl. Donna groaned, whether it was because of Jackie and Steven, or more likely because her water had just broken, Jackie wasn’t too sure.

“Sorry,” she said holding her hands up in defence, she then offered Donna an arm. “More important things, sorry!”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays. As always, better late than never.  
> I hope anyone who has read this story, has enjoyed coming on this journey with me, and thank you so much for your reviews, bookmarks and kudos - I know fic writers say it constantly, but it means a lot.

San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990, 1:20 PM

San Francisco Hospital

There was chattering, that filled the cafeteria of the hospital, as Hyde opened the door. His eyes scanned the big room, looking for Jackie. He’d just been back by the hotel again, to pick up some of the crap, Forman had forgotten in the panicked rush to the hospital the first time. Predictably, Forman had been flailing with his arms, and acting like he was the one giving birth, rather than Donna. If Hyde and Jackie hadn’t been busy trying to help their friends, Hyde would have probably burned his friend, in some sort of way. Understandably, big Red hadn’t brought up what she had probably overheard between Jackie and Hyde, so at least they hadn’t had to deal with that on top of everything else.

Hyde spotted Jackie leaning against a column by the salad bar, and he headed towards her. She looked like she was thinking about something, at first appearing not to have noticed him at all. Her camel coat was too big on her tiny frame, making her look smaller than she usually did. Half the way over, she looked up and seemed to notice him. There was a small smile on her face, tugging at the edge of her mouth. “Hey,” he said, as he came up to her.

“Hi,” she replied, a light shining in her eyes, as she looked at him. Something tugged in his chest. Jackie shuffled from foot to foot, and kind of moved her hands awkwardly, like she wasn’t sure what to do. Neither was he, if he was honest. So, at least they were at the same place, when it came to that. “So- I guess, Eric and Donna are gonna get an extended vacation in San Francisco?” Jackie said, seeming unsure.

“Yeah, guess so,” he said, a grin on his face. Jackie’s hair was pulled back, a couple of loose strands hanging down. He put his hands into the pockets of his jacket. They had been sitting on the edge of a bed, kissing each other not two hours ago. And now here they were, in a cafeteria of a hospital that looked like it had been fixed up some time in the 60s and not since. There was a lot of wood panelling for a hospital. “So what about you? Are you going back home to LA?” he heard himself asking.

“No. I haven’t been back in San Francisco in a while,” Jackie started, crossing her arms. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. She shuffled from foot to foot. “I was going to stick around for a few days, maybe see some friends, some sights, you know?”

“Cool,” Hyde replied, unsure what would be the right thing to say. He always seemed to be unsure of that, when it came to Jackie. But it was even worse now. Jackie was standing here, looking up at him. Jackie had said she loved him. He’d even told her, how happy he used to be, way back when they were together. But he still felt a little unsure. He balled his fists where, he had them buried in his jacket pockets.

“What about you?” she asked, suddenly seeming kind of interested in her shoes. Clearly, this was as weird to her, as it was to him. Or at least, this wasn’t something, that they were used to anymore. That helped a little bit. Made Hyde breathe a little easier.

“Got no plans,” Hyde replied with a smile, sneaking up on his face. He shrugged. That was technically a lie, he had a meeting his dad was dragging him along to, that Tuesday morning. But he was pretty sure, he could talk his dad into letting him skip this one, especially since he had started slacking off at work, a lot less. Besides, this right here, felt important. More important, than anything had in a while.

“Cool,” Jackie replied, meeting his eyes again, and he wasn’t sure whether or not she was making fun of him. She might have been, but honestly he didn’t care. She shuffled and dangled her arms along her sides. He reached out, and he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered for longer, than it probably had to. Jackie smiled, and she leaned a little bit into his hand. “Maybe, I could show you around, see some sights.”

“That’s cool,” he replied, not failing to notice how Jackie rolled her eyes at that. She looked like she was about to fire something back, about how that was the only thing he ever said, or something like that. It seemed like something she would do. But before she could, his other hand cupped the other side of her face, and he dipped his head down to kiss her.

Hyde had wanted to do that for a while, basically since he had run out of his hotel room to go find Forman, so Donna could get to the hospital. Jackie responded eagerly, one hand around his neck, fingers buried in his hair. She made a small noise, and he backed her the half step back, so her back was against the column. Jackie sucked down on his bottom lip. He wanted to tell her- well, a lot of things. How much he’d missed her for one. Because he had missed her, even if he had been a bit slow to catch up. Not just today, but for a while.

There was an annoyed cough from somewhere behind them. Hyde turned his head to see an older woman looking at them from one of the table, with a scandalized look on her face. Jackie sent the woman a glare, and if looks could kill she’d probably be curled up on the floor. Hyde straightened his face to try and not smirk. As annoying as this was, it was also just a little bit funny. “Sorry, m’am,” he said, still barely managing not to smirk.

Hyde linked his fingers together with Jackie’s, and she squeezed his hand slightly. This wasn’t usually something, he would do. She was still glaring at the older woman though, as he tugged her slightly in the direction of the door. “She wishes, she could kiss like us,” Jackie grumbled, as they left the hospital. “She probably lives alone with like four cats or something.”

“Jackie-“ he started, a small smile sneaking onto his face. If you were to ask him later, he wasn’t sure why that’s what does it. But they paused outside the hospital, a light rain drizzling down, and the building behind them, probably the most painfully boring thing, he’d seen in a while. She looked up at him for a moment, clearly surprised, he’d kind of stopped in his tracks. “I love you,” he heard himself say, not particularly loudly but not uncertainly either. Jackie just stared at him for a moment.

“I love you too,” Jackie said, a bright smile on her face. There were practically stars in her eyes. Not that he was going to start being as mushy and sappy as Forman now, it just seemed like an apt description was all. “But let’s get back to the car okay? This rain is gonna ruin my hair, if we stay here for much longer.”

Normally, Hyde would have probably said something about how it was barely raining. Or that she was probably kind of insane. But right now, he honestly couldn’t care less. Instead, he headed with her towards the parking lot, still holding her hand.

* * *

  
San Francisco, California

March 11th, 1990 9:34 PM

The Love and Joy Hotel

There were no sounds, except the traffic outside of the hotel, and the sound of Jackie’s own heartbeat. They had ended up in Jackie’s room, since Steven hadn’t booked his for longer than until after the reception, or the reception as it was supposed to be that day anyway. Obviously, there hadn’t exactly been one, since Fez was probably half the way to Los Angeles by now. Jackie snuggled up closer to Steven, this whole day felt surreal. There was a part of her, in the back of her head, who was kind of afraid, what would happen, if she fell asleep. If nothing else, it had at least been a very eventful day.

Jackie pressed her face into the crook between Steven’s neck and his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her, holding her there. She smiled against his skin. There was still something warm buzzing through her, and Jackie drew a deep, content sigh. “This is nice,” Jackie said with a quiet whisper.

“Yeah, it’s alright,” Steven replied, sounding content, and Jackie could practically picture him smiling. She snuggled closer to him, if she could get closer to him, that was. None of them said anything for a long moment. Jackie pressed her eyes shut. She really didn’t care how long, they stayed here. Steven had said, they would go see Eric and Donna and the new Forman at the hospital tomorrow, but Jackie would just as gladly stay here, cuddled up against him.

“Can I ask you something kind of stupid?” Jackie whispered, without moving an inch.

“Thought, that was all you did,” Steven replied, which did make Jackie raise her head slightly to glare at him. That made him smile slightly. “Kidding,” he promised.

“It’s just-“ Jackie said, still sitting up. She shuffled sort of awkwardly with her hands. “I know, I probably made a mistake, trying to push you, but- What would you have said, if I haven’t gotten scared and said I had gone to Chicago?”

“Jackie-“ he started, clearly about to protest, and something in her stomach sunk.

“You said, we could talk more about things, Steven,” Jackie reminded him, even if she did feel bad about bringing it up.

“Well, I didn’t think we would be doing that now!” he protested, and Jackie took a deep breath and laid back down next to him. Maybe, he’d answer maybe he wouldn’t, regardless it would probably be easier, if she wasn’t staring him down. Jackie took another deep breath. One of his hands found her hair, stroking through it.

“But I guess, if that’s something you wanna know- I thought we were doing really good, and I wouldn’t really have minded, if things continued the way they were for a really long time,” he continued, probably looking up at the ceiling. Jackie swallowed hard, and squeezed her eyes shut. “So if I hadn’t had freaked out, and you hadn’t freaked out- I probably would have said, eventually, when we were old enough.”

“That’s what, I thought you’d say,” Jackie said softly, feeling calmer. She heard a faint echo of what Fez had said on New Year’s Eve in the back of her head, but Jackie shut it down. “Well, now anyway, back then I was really scared. That was the reason, I came up with it to begin with too, I was afraid,” Jackie said quietly.

“I get it, Jacks,” he said quietly, and Jackie was pretty sure, he actually did. Sure, it would have been nice to have gotten married back then, at least if you’d asked 18 year old Jackie. But above and beyond she’d just been scared, scared of losing another person, who meant the entire world to her. Because he had. And if anyone understood, what it was like to lose people, you cared about, it was Steven. But she could do better now, they could both do better. There was a certain amount of assuredness, that settled in her. She angled her head to kiss his cheek.

“Can I ask you one more stupid question, Steven?” Jackie asked, now sort of propped up on her elbows, so she could look down at him. He opened his eyes to look at her.

“Is it less bad, than the last one?” he retorted, making a slight smile tug at her mouth.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jackie said with a small smile, as she fiddled slightly with his shirt. She wasn’t really feeling nervous about asking this, except Steven might think, she was being ridiculous or something. “This morning, what you said about how you used to feel, when we were- you know, together? Do you feel that way now?”

“I think, we’re getting there, yeah,” he said quietly, a hand stroking along her cheek. Jackie beamed, as happy as she hadn’t been in a while, maybe even ever, still looking down at him. There was a content smirk on his face.

“Me too, Pudding Pop,” she replied happily. Steven immediately made a disgusted face, and a noise, although it seemed sort of half hearted.

“Ugh, I did not miss that!” he protested again. Jackie giggled, apparently that hadn’t changed in 10 years.

“Liar,” Jackie retorted, still giggling. She cupped both his cheeks in her hands, and bent her head to kiss him again, happiness bubbling underneath her skin.


End file.
